Philosophy and the Scientific Method

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Philosophy and theScientific Method

• Dr Keith Jones

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Introduction

• In this presentation we will examine the
  development of philosophy and science within a
  Western context of thinking.
• Early Greek and Medieval thought.
• The Scientific Revolution.
• The Twentieth Century.

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Philosophy Research

• The Chambers twentieth century dictionary defines
  philosophy as-
• ..pursuit of wisdom and knowledge.
• ..knowledge of the causes of things.
• Research is defined as-
• ..systematic investigation towards increasing the
  sum of knowledge.

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Science

• Science is defined as-
• ..knowledge ascertained by observation and
  experiment, critically tested, systemised and
  brought under general principles..

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Science

• Science is also cumulative with each generation
  building on the ideas of the preceding ones
  either through rejection and change or conformity
  and development.

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Science, Philosophy Research

• So Philosophy uses Research to test established
  ideas and identify their limitations which in
  turn provides the basis for the formulation of
  new explanations and continues the process of
  philosophical evolution.
• Science provides the mechanisms through which
  Research is conducted.

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Key Philosophical Problems

• There are two fundamental philosophical problems
  which have influenced the development of science
• The nature of reality
• what can be known for certain
• Is there such a thing as absolute truth?
• There have been two paradigm shifts in Western
  thinking.

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Greek Medieval Thought

• The ancient Greeks tried to formulate rational
  principles to explain the worlds structure and
  composition.
• They also raised fundamental questions about
  knowledge and reality which are still applicable
  today.

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Platos Cave

• Klein and Lyytinen (1985) transposed Platos cave
  analogy to one which was applicable to an
  organisations IT system.
• They described a situation in which users,
  analysts and management are chained to a rock in
  a cave such that they can only see distorted
  shadows cast on a wall.

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Platos Cave

• These shades of reality are cast by a large
  unsteady flame behind their backs.
• In the example each person sees different images
  as they move across the wall. They can argue who
  sees the TRUE SHAPE but this cannot be confirmed
  with any degree of certainty.

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Platos Cave

• The significance of this example to Research is
  to demonstrate that different people observing a
  changing phenomenon will draw different
  conclusions about the causes of that phenomenon.

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Aristotle

• Aristotles philosophy was based on observing the
  world and interpreting the observations within
  the limits of our experience.
• His arguments were based on deductive reasoning
  as illustrated in his syllogy Men are mortal,
  Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal.

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Aristotle

• In essence Aristotle and the Greek philosophers
  observed the world and established lines of
  deductive argument to predict what should happen.
• It did not involve experimentation.

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Scientific Revolution

• In was not until Descartes, Bacon and Newton that
  philosophy moved into the scientific age.
• The primary difference between the Scientific
  revolution and the Greek philosophers was
  INDUCTIVE reasoning.

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Inductive Reasoning

• Bacon insisted that knowledge should be based on
  a process of induction, which is the systematic
  method of reaching general conclusions on the
  basis of evidence gained from individual
  observations.
• This led to the use of controlled experiments and
  mathematics to build general theories.

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Inductive Reasoning

• These theories in turn allowed science to be used
  to exercise control over the material world.
• Philosophy became involved in changing the world
  rather than simply observing the world.

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Isaac Newton

• Probably the most significant contributions to
  experimental science were made by Isaac Newton.
• Newton postulated a theory and then used
  experimentation to test it against alternatives.
• In Newtons view experiments provided knowledge of
  the laws that governed the whole world.

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Science and Philosophy

• The development of scientific method led to a
  change in the role of philosophy.
• The role of philosophy now became one of
  examining and commenting on the appropriateness
  of scientific method and on identifying the
  limits of the laws so developed.

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Empiricism v Rationalism

• Within this process was the debate between
  empiricists and rationalists.
• Rationalists believe that all knowledge starts in
  the mind.
• Empiricists believe that all knowledge originates
  from experience.

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Rationalism

• Descartes used the method of systematic doubt
  and concluded that the only thing he could be
  certain of was his own existence - I think
  therefore I am.
• Descartes use of the principle of analytical
  reductionism forms the basis of the majority
  Western scientific thinking over the past 350
  years.

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Rationalism

• Reductionism is characterised by the reduction of
  complex entities to the simpler parts of which
  they are composed.
• However, in the twentieth century this approach
  was challenged by those who believe that evidence
  gathered from the parts cannot necessarily be
  combined to describe the behaviour of the whole.

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Rationalism

• These criticisms have been particularly strong
  amongst those who have studied the social
  sciences.

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Empiricism

• John Locke concluded that there are no such
  things as INNATE IDEAS but that all we know comes
  from experience and reflection upon experience.
• Such experiences cannot be isolated from their
  surroundings as everything is inter-related to
  everything else.
• Holistic approach to the scientific method.

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Systems Thinking

• One consequence of this holistic approach has
  been the development of the SYSTEMS MOVEMENT and
  research methodologies such as ACTION RESEARCH.
• It is systems thinking that many claim is
  challenging the accepted views of scientific
  revolution.

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Conclusion

• At the beginning of this presentation I drew
  attention to the philosophical questions about
  what we know for certain and absolute truth.
• Through the scientific revolution philosophers
  tried to develop methodologies that could
  establish the absolute truth.

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Conclusion

• It is sobering to recall that probably the most
  significant contribution of the Twentieth century
  was the downfall of Newtons model of the world
  and its replacement by Einstein's.
• The lesson that this provides to today's
  researcher is that the results from scientific
  work are never absolute.

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Conclusion

• Hopefully in this presentation I have shown that
• there are many different approaches to obtaining
  knowledge
• that the knowledge gained depends upon the
  approaches adopted.
• In the remainder of the Research Methods unit
  you will examine some of these approaches in
  greater detail.