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Introduction to Philosophy of Science
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Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

May 31, 2020

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Page 1: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Introduction to Philosophy of Science

Page 2: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

What is Science

• There is no precise definition

• Science is an involving process, by which people learn about the surrounding world

Page 3: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

What is Science

• Science studies the natural world: – Phenomena of the physical universe

– Atoms

– Living cells

– Natural forces

• In contrast, science cannot study supernatural forces and explanations: – Afterlife

http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/whatisscience_03

Page 4: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

• Paranormal activities as well as near death experience (conscious surviving physical death) are studied by scientists: – Dean Radin (Institute of Noetic Sciences) – Dr. Pim van Lommel

• Not accepted widely by the mainstream scientific community

http://www.noetic.org/research/overview/ http://www.near-death.com/

What is Science

Page 5: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Characteristics of Science

• Science is empirical, i.e. is based on experience

• Science aims to gain knowledge based objective observations

– Repeatable observations

– Under the same conditions other scientists can make the same observations

Page 6: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Characteristics of Science

• Science is self-correcting:

– New evidence might contradict previous understanding

– Under the same conditions other scientists can make the same observations

• Science is tentative

– Cannot claim knowing the truth about any phenomena

Page 7: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Characteristics of Science

• Science is progressive:

– Quantity and quality of knowledge grows

• Science deals with falsifiable ideas

– That can be shown to be false

• Science deals with testable ideas

• Science must rely on evidence

Page 8: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

• Science evolves in scientific community • Pay attention to what other people have already done. Scientific knowledge is

built cumulatively. If you want to discover exciting new things, you need to know what people have already discovered before you. This means that scientists study their fields extensively to understand the current state of knowledge.

• Expose your ideas to testing. Strive to describe and perform the tests that might suggest you are wrong and/or allow others to do so. This may seem like shooting yourself in the foot but is critical to the progress of science. Science aims to accurately understand the world, and if ideas are protected from testing, it's impossible to figure out if they are accurate or inaccurate!

• Assimilate the evidence. Evidence is the ultimate arbiter of scientific ideas. Scientists are not free to ignore evidence. When faced with evidence contradicting his or her idea, a scientist may suspend judgment on that idea pending more tests, may revise or reject the idea, or may consider alternate ways to explain the evidence, but ultimately, scientific ideas are sustained by evidence and cannot be propped up if the evidence tears them down.

• Openly communicate ideas and tests to others. Communication is important for many reasons. If a scientist keeps knowledge to her- or himself, others cannot build upon those ideas, double-check the work, or devise new ways to test the ideas.

• Play fair: Act with scientific integrity. Hiding evidence, selectively reporting evidence, and faking data directly thwart science's main goal — to construct accurate knowledge about the natural world. Hence, maintaining high standards of honesty, integrity, and objectivity is critical to science.

http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/whatisscience_09

Page 9: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Goals of Science

• Discovery of Regularities

– Description of the phenomena

– Discovering Laws of association between phenomena

– Search for causes

• Overlooking real causes

• Some events are coincidental

• Some events are correlated

• Development of theories

Page 10: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Scientific Concepts

• Hypothesis

“is a statement that is assumed to be true for the purpose of testing its validity”

Research Methods by D.H. McBurney and T.L. White

“A proposed explanation for a fairly narrow set of phenomena, usually based on prior experience, scientific background knowledge, preliminary observations, and logic”

http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/howscienceworks_05

Page 11: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Scientific Concepts

• Law

“is a statement that certain events are associated”

Research Methods by D.H. McBurney and T.L. White

Page 12: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Scientific Concepts

• Theory

“In science, a broad, natural explanation for a wide range of phenomena. Theories are concise, coherent, systematic, predictive, and broadly applicable, often integrating and generalizing many hypotheses. Theories accepted by the scientific community are generally strongly supported by many different lines of evidence-but even theories may be modified or overturned if warranted by new evidence and perspectives. ”

http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/howscienceworks_05

Page 13: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Process of Science

http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/howscienceworks_02

Page 14: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Research Projects: Process of Science

1. Analysis of Differential Gene Expression using real RNA-seq data and existing tools (3 people)

2. Associative analysis of micro-RNA abundance and gene expression using real RNA-seq data

3. Build a tool for RNA-seq alignment including splicing identification from RNA-seq data

4. Discovering novel genes using real RNA-seq data 5. Mapping tool for micro-RNA data. Target

prediction of miRNA and mRNA binding. 6. Improvement of mapping tool BRAT-BW (indels,

local alignment, RRBS) 7. Speeding up alignment of reads using perfect

repeats Slide 14 of 31

Page 15: Introduction to Philosophy of Sciencealumni.cs.ucr.edu/~elenah/courses/CSCI693/Lecture2.pdf · Introduction to Philosophy of Science . What is Science •There is no precise definition

Progress of Science

• Kuhn

• Paradigm is a widely accepted set of assumptions and theories in a brunch of science

• Revolution is change from one paradigm to another

– Involves social and personal forces