PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY OF SCIENCE 5

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PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY OF SCIENCE(5)

• Vincent F. Hendricks
• Department of Philosophy and Science Studies
• Roskilde University
• vincent_at_ruc.dk
• Thursday, March 11 / 2004

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PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics

• Epistemology is the study of (human) knowledge of
  reality
• Philosophy if science is the study of scientific
  knowledge of reality
• Metaphysics is the philosophical investigation of
  the nature, constitution and structure of reality
• Metaphysics (or ontology / the theory of being)
  is traditionally considered
• Broader than science (physics and cosmology)
  since one of its traditional concerns is the
  existence of non-physical entities (mind, soul,
  God, freedom,)
• More fundamental than science it investigates
  questions science does not address but
  presupposes answers to (are there physical
  objects, cause, necessity

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PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics - statements

• The modes of cognition
• A priori an a priori truth is one which can be
  known independently of experience
• A posteriori - an a posteriori truth is one which
  cannot be known independently of experience
• The modes of statement
• Analytic a priori (Kant)
• Synthetic a posteriori (Kant)
• Synthetic a priori (Kant)
• The synthetic a priori statements are
  transcendental insofar as they describe the
  conditions under which human cognition is at all
  possible
• (Analytic aposteriori) (Kripke) and the concepts
  of necessity and possibility (not the same as a
  priori and a posteriori)

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PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics - Necessity / Cause

• Consider the following statement For
  combustion to occur it is necessary that there is
  oxygen
• Here necessity is understood in terms of cause
• Humean analysis of cause
• Constant conjunction
• Temporal precedence
• Contiguity in space and time
• Millean specification of cause pace Hume
• Necessary condition for cause, i.e. C is a
  necessary condition for E
• Sufficient condition for cause, i.e. for every
  event there is a set of conditions sufficient to
  produce it
• Plurality of causes

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PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics The Causal Principle

• The Causal Principle Everything that happens in
  the universe has a cause
• Is the principle of determinism
• Verifiable (and if so, when certainty / limiting
  / gradually)?
• Refutable (and if so, when)?
• Decidable (and if so, when)?
• A rule rather than a proposition?
• Empirical (example All matter is divisible)?
• Transcendent (example All matter is divisible)?

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PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics Free will / Determinism

• Are free will (freedom of human action) and
  determinism incompatible?
• How do you account for compulsion, coercion, or
  inside determinism
• Fatalism Whatever happens is fated to happen
• Indeterminism Not all events have cause and what
  I do is up to me
• Predictibility Human actions are not entirely
  predictable
• Chance
• Coincidence
• Ignorance of causes
• Mathematical probability (combinatorics)
• Statistical probability (frequencies)
• No cause (big bang)
• The Theory of Agency Agents as first causes of
  action

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PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics - Exercises

• Items (a)-(g), p. 165
• Consider the following reason by Aquinas
• If God knows today, what I will do tomorrow,
  then what I will do tomorrow is foreodained. And
  if it is foreordained, then either I have no
  freedom of choice, or else I will freely choose
  to do what is foreodained. However, the latter is
  impossible. Therefore I have no freedom of choice
  unless God doesnt know today what I will do
  tomorrow.

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PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics - Exercises

• The Problem of Future Contingents
• Consider the following statement Athens will win
  the sea battle tomorrow
• Suppose every proposition is either true or
  false. That gives two cases
• If true (now), then determined today that Athens
  will win sea battle tomorrow
• If false (now), then determined today that Athens
  will not win sea battle tomorrow
• Whatever the outcome, it is already determined
  now what will happen tomorrow
• Whatever happens must happen necessarily
• Yet because we have free will we know this must
  be false!