INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

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INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

• Damon Burton Andy Gillham
• University of Idaho

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• What are the 2 sport psychologies?

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• What does Martens think about orthodox science?
  Why?

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• What is objectivity?
• Why does Kuhn and Polyani think this doctrine is
  false?

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• How does science evolve?

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• What is the difference between the leap and the
  creep approaches?

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• What is reductionism? Is it a good paradigm?

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• What is DK Theory?

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DK THEORY
Damn Konfident
Scientific Method (Using the Heuristic Paradigm)
Systematic Observation
Single Case Study
Shared (Public) Experience
Introspection
Intuition
Dont Know
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• What is the difference between idiographic and
  nomothetic methods?

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• What other types of experiential knowledge
  could be used more in sport psychology?

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• What are the roles of basic and applied
  research?
• What balance should there be between these 2
  types of research?

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KINESIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Kinesiology study of human movement
• Kinesiological psychology -- psychological study
  and ramifications of human movement

Motor Learning
Motor Development
Kinesiological Psychology
Social Psych of Physical Activity
Sport Psychology
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KINESIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Motor Learning -- study of motor behavior from a
  learning psychology perspective.
• Motor Development -- study of motor behavior from
  a developmental psychology perspective.
• Social Psychology of Physical Activity -- study
  of how social psychological variables influence
  motor behavior and new movement patterns and visa
  versa.
• Sport Psychology -- study of human motor behavior
  in a sport context.

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FUNDAMENTAL AXIOMS OF SCIENCE

• reality of space
• reality of time
• reality of matter
• quantifiability of matter
• belief that space is real
• belief that time is real

• belief that matter is real
• what exists, exists in some amount
• what exists, and even relationships between
  existing phenomena, are amenable to observation
  and measurement

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FUNDAMENTAL AXIOMS OF SCIENCE

• consistency in the universe

• The universe is organized in an orderly manner
• There is regularity, constancy, consistency, and
  uniformity in the operation of the universe

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FUNDAMENTAL AXIOMS OF SCIENCE

• Intelligibility of the Universe
• Determinism
• Empiricism

• Science holds that we can observe, know, and
  understand the universe in which we live.
• All events are determined or caused.
• Knowing is the result of first-hand, direct
  original observation.

Information derived from Lachman (1960)
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POLANYIS TRIAD OF KNOWLEDGE
Focal Target (Problem)
Subsidiary Awareness(Clues)
Person(Links the 2 Together)
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OPERATING CONCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE

• Scientists must remain impersonal, impartial, and
  detached in making observations and in
  interpreting data the scientists must maintain a
  disinterested attitude
• Science is not moral or immoral it is amoral

• Concept of Objectivity
• Concept of Amorality

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OPERATING CONCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE

• Concept of Caution
• Concept of Skepticism

• Scientists must maintain meticulous caution and
  painstaking vigilance in their methods
• Scientists reject the notion of absolutism
  refuse to acknowledge authoritarianism or
  dogmatism as a source of knowledge, even the data
  of science are viewed as tentative

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OPERATING CONCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE

• Science strives to build and test theory
• Science should be conservative in stating the
  implications of its data the data should be
  interpreted in the simples, most succinct form
  possible

• Concept of Theory Construction
• and Utilization
• Concept of Parsimony

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OPERATING CONCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE

• Science strives to reduce specific data to
  succinct statements of consistency
• Reductionism demands that generalizations be
  specified in terms of precise mathematical
  formulae

• Concept of Reductionism

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HARLAN CLEVELAND (1985)

• Cleveland provides a complementary way of looking
  at knowledge. He says there are four key terms
  related to knowledge data, information,
  knowledge, and wisdom.
• Data are undigested observations, unvarnished
  facts.
• Information is organized data.
• Knowledge is organized information, internalized
  by me, integrated with everything else I know
  from experience or study or intuition, and
  therefore useful in guiding my life.
• Wisdom

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HARLAN CLEVELAND (1985)

• Wisdom, Cleveland states, is integrated
  knowledge, information made super useful by
  theory, which relates bits and fields of
  knowledge to each other, which in turn enables me
  to use the knowledge to do something (p. 23).
• This is what Polanyi calls the tacit dimension.