Science
[gL.edu] This article gathers contributions by {{{Authors}}}, developed within the context of the Conceptual clarification about "Information, Knowledge and Philosophy", under the supervisión of J.M. Díaz Nafría.
The philosophy of science investigates its methods of inquiry, underlying principles and implications. It questions the very assumptions that scientists base their work on, such as the logic of scientific explanation and the significance of empirical evidence. (Okasha, 2002)
Abstract
This article covers some of the key thinkers and movements that shaped the evolution of scientific methodology, focusing on the philosophical perspective. The journey starts in ancient Greece and continues through to contemporary debates.
It discusses the contributions of the greek philosophers and how their work laid the foundation for science to take shape in the modern age, starting with the scientific revolution and the theories of thinkers like Descartes and Bacon. It goes on to explore the contrasting ideas of Leibniz and Locke during the Enlightenment period, Hume's problem of induction and Kant's proposition in response. Key developments in 20th century physics are mentioned, Einstein's relativity theory and the rise of quantum mechanics, and how they changed our understanding of nature and shaped the evolution of scientific methodology. Additionally, it explores important philosophical movements of the 20th century that arose out of the preceding discourse and their respective influences on scientific methodology.
The Foundations of Scientific Methodology in Ancient Greece
One could refer to the pre-socratic philosophers as something like pre-scientific scientists. They were asking questions about the natural world, its order and fundamental make-up. (Holmes, n.d.) Thales, who is widely considered to be the first philosopher (Russel, 1946), and the other thinkers of the Milesian school, tried finding the Original Substance of which all else was constituted while philosophers like Pythagoras and Heraclitus later ruminated on the nature of order and change in the natural world.
Even if they came to conclusions that we know to be false today, such as Thales' idea that everything is made of water, they identified the very issues that, in many ways, science still grapples with today. (Holmes, n.d.)
After Socrates, particularly the converging ideas of Plato and Aristotle on the concept of knowledge had an impact on the development of scientific thought. Plato had a rationalist approach and posited the Doctrine of Ideas. He believed in the existence of a world of ideal forms that are permanent and separate from the physical world. These forms he considered to be the true realities and what gave meaning to our experience of the world. (Durant, 1926) Aristotle on the other hand held a more empirical position. Bertrand Russel describes his metaphysics as “Plato diluted with common sense.” (Russel, 1946, p. 441) He advocated for understanding both form and matter together and put an emphasis on learning based on observation and sensory experience. (Durant, 1926) This suggests one of the key principles in many sciences, the idea that one needs to study a phenomenon in its entirety in order to understand it.
Plato and Aristotle’s philosophies laid the groundwork for many elements of scientific methodology and played a huge part in the shift away from mythological and religious explanations of the world towards those rooted in observation and logic.
The change from antiquity to modernity brought with it massive changes in scientific and philosophical thought. Scientific methodology truly took shape in the modern era, with its focus shifting from the Aristotelian emphasis on qualitative analysis towards quantitative analysis, mostly advanced by the scientific revolution starting in the 16th century.
Scientific Methodology Taking Shape in the Modern Age
The origin of science can be traced back to the scientific revolution in Europe, which took place from about 1500 to 1750. Opposing the Aristotelian worldview that had dominated Antiquity it essentially started with the Copernican revolution, resulting in the development of modern physics through the work of Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei. (Okasha, 2002) The scientific revolution culminated in the work of Isaac Newton, whose inductive approach was the basis of a lot of natural philosophy throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. ("History of scientific method," 2023)
The two main thinkers contemplating methods of inquiry during this time were Francis Bacon and Renè Descartes. As an empiricist Francis Bacon believed that science must be rooted in the observation of facts, acting as a base for the theories that structure and explain them, close to the now standard view that observations are gathered to test a hypothesis. (Grayling, 2019) This was the approach also favoured by Newton. ("History of scientific method," 2023)
Bacon’s contemporary Decartes’ central proposition "Cogito, ergo sum," marked a turn towards a subject-centred approach. (Russel, 1946) This emphasis on the mind's role in acquiring knowledge set the stage for the emphasis on rationality in the modern scientific method.
Descartes’ approach is central to rationalism, the belief that true knowledge can only be attained by reason, in contrast to empiricism, which argues that knowledge must either originate in or be testable by experience, a stance held by thinkers like Francis Bacon. (Grayling, 2019) It is evident how these opposing views can be traced back to Aristotle and Plato and their disagreement on the nature of knowledge.
Descartes' approach is deductive, meaning it begins with general premises assumed to be true and then proceeds to a specific conclusion using logic. Bacon’s empiricism on the other hand is based on inductive reasoning, in which general principles are inferred from specific observations. The philosophers that followed them can thus be grouped into two camps: the empiricists, like John Locke, and the rationalists, like Gottfried Leibniz. (Grayling, 2019)
Rationalism and Empiricism during the Enlightenment Period
The philosophical discourse regarding knowledge acquisition again diverged with the ideas of John Locke and Gottfried Leibniz, both key philosophers of the Enlightenment period and both leading the evolution of scientific methodology down a different path.
The empiricist John Locke proposed that the mind at birth is a tabula rasa and that we only acquire knowledge from sensory experience, thus filling this blank slate which doesn’t inherently possess any knowledge. His theory favoured the analytical approach of breaking down complex phenomena into simpler components for individual study, emphasising detail over big picture accounts to investigate topics like truth, meaning and knowledge. (Grayling, 2019) This view shaped scientific methodology by influencing empirical approaches that prioritise data derived from experience and observation.
Gottfried Leibniz, a rationalist, had a more systemic approach to understanding the world. In contrast to Locke he did believe in innate ideas and thought that our minds are programmed to think along certain lines. He argued that the world is best understood as a harmonious system, composed of simple, indivisible units (principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles). (Okasha, 2002)
According to Leibniz’ theory, understanding these units doesn’t just require analysing individual parts, but recognising their interaction as a cohesive system. This view greatly influenced the development of systems thinking in scientific methodology, an approach that highlights studying interconnected wholes, rather than treating the separate parts in isolation. ("Introduction to Systems Thinking", 2019)
David Hume, another important figure in British empiricism, further shaped the nature of scientific methodology with his empirical skepticism. Hume's philosophy posed a challenge to inductive reasoning, a fundamental aspect of scientific methodology. In his "problem of induction," Hume pointed out that we can never be entirely certain of truths derived from inductive reasoning, that its use cannot be rationally justified. For example, just because the sun has risen every day of our lives, we cannot conclusively assume it will rise tomorrow. (Okasha, 2002)
Hume’s problem truly shook the foundations of science, since it relies on induction as a principle. (Okasha, 2002) Still, his philosophical stance laid the groundwork for a vital component of scientific methodology today: challenging our convictions and correcting and revising our understandings based on empirical evidence.
Many thinkers have responded to Hume in different ways, one of them being German philosopher Immanuel Kant. He proposed that while our knowledge indeed starts with experience, it is our mind that handles sensory data and thus gives meaning to it. In his "Critique of Pure Reason," Kant argued that there are necessary conditions of understanding that are a priori and without which we would not be able to have any experience at all. These are not derived from any experience, but are innate. (Grayling, 2019)
Kant proposed a middle way between rationalism and empiricism. He believed there to be a priori concepts innate to our minds, which are capable of organizing and interpreting sensory data, but not sufficient by themselves for creating knowledge. (Grayling, 2019) Kant proposed a middle way between rationalism and empiricism. He believed there to be a priori concepts innate to our minds, which are capable of organizing and interpreting sensory data, but not sufficient by themselves for creating knowledge.
Kant's ideas had important implications for scientific methodology, focusing on the relationship between a priori principles and empirical data.
Quantum Mechanics and Mathematical Logic in the 20th Century
Newtonian physics were challenged in the 20th century by two new developments: Albert Einstein’s relativity theory and the emergence of quantum mechanics. Relativity theory illustrates that Newton’s mechanics give wrong results when applied to objects of great mass or objects moving at high velocities. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, illustrates the failure of Newton’s theory when applied to subatomic particles. Both of these theories have profound impacts on physics and make claims about the world which are hard to understand and often seem to contrast common sense. (Okasha, 2002)
According to Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, the position and momentum of a particle cannot be simultaneously measured with precision, demonstrating a fundamental indeterminacy in nature. (Hilgevoord & Uffink, 2016) This challenges the deterministic view of Newtonian physics and brings an inevitable uncertainty to physics, thus constraining the experimental sciences.
At the same time Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems changed the world of mathematics and logic. Gödel showed that within any axiomatic system, there would always be statements that couldn't be proven within the system itself, thus making it impossible to create a perfectly complete system using mathematics. This brought uncertainty even into the seemingly solid basis of logic and mathematics. (Kennedy, 2020)
These developments in physics and mathematics profoundly impacted scientific methodology and epistemology, drawing attention to the limits of both formal and experimental sciences and leading to the conclusion that the proofs provided by science might not be absolute and complete. Still, they could provide reliable and useful understanding within specific frames of reference.
Phenomenology and Existentialism
With the emergence of phenomenology and existentialism in the 20th century, new perspectives were added to our understanding of knowledge and science.
Edmund Husserl's phenomenology, the investigation of consciousness itself, introduced the concept of the lifeworld, the world we experience before analysing or theorising about it. His method of bracketing, meant suspending attention from everything but consciousness itself, so it could be investigated on its own. (Grayling, 2019)
Building upon Husserl's ideas, his student Martin Heidegger, a central thinker of existentialism, focused on the question "what does Being mean?". Heidegger's work posed a significant shift away from terms of Cartesian philosophy towards a phenomenological approach, describing human existence (Dasein) as being-in-the-world. (Grayling, 2019) This focus on the contextuality of knowledge had implications for how we conceive scientific inquiry.
Based on these philosophical foundations, José Ortega y Gasset proposed "vital reason". He argued that reason is an inherent part of life, rather than being separate from it, that both the individual and their circumstances together constitute life, thus offering a new perspective on understanding reality deeply connected to lived experiences. (Bonevac, 2013)
Phenomenology and existentialism together challenged the dominance of objective methods in scientific inquiry, leading to increased recognition of the subjective element of knowledge. They broadened the horizons of scientific methodology, especially in the human sciences, emphasising the importance of human experience in knowledge acquisition.
Logical Positivism
In the 1920s and 1930s, logical positivism was born out of the meetings of the Vienna Circle, a group of philosophers and scientists that included important figures like Rudolf Carnap. Logical positivism, heavily influenced by the work of Wittgenstein, asserted that only scientific discourse was sensical, emphasising empirical evidence and logical analysis as the main sources of knowledge.
Their Verification theory, a criterion for meaningfulness of statements, argued that only a verifiable statement was meaningful. The logical positivists believed most metaphysical discourse to be unverifiable and thus meaningless. Carnap advocated for the unity of science, he believed that legitimate statements should be translatable into a single language of science. (Philosophical Overdose, 2022)
Rejecting every statement about the world that was not based on direct experience as illegitimate obviously represented a harsh distinction between scientific and non-scientific statements. This strict verificationist idea presented a rigorous approach to scientific methodology, and was criticised for not taking theoretical constructs in science into account.
At the same time, Critical Theory came into fruition at the Frankfurt School, a group of thinkers including Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. Critical theory holds a subjectivist view, fundamentally believing that our knowledge is unique and shaped by our interactions with others and the specific circumstances we find ourselves in. It emphasises the role of real-world conditions, both material and historical, in forming our individual perceptions and understandings. Critical theorists posit that it's essential to scrutinise knowledge and appreciate research that can expose such influences and challenge them through emancipatory practice. (Bohman & Flynn & Celikates, 2021)
The tension between logical positivism and critical theory, between unity of scientific methodology and stressing its social dimensions, resulted in ongoing debates on values in science, its purpose and potential consequences.
Postmodernism
In the late 20th century postmodern thought challenged traditional conceptions of scientific knowledge. It rejects universal truths and instead advocates for subjectivity and the contextual nature of knowledge.
Postmodern thinkers insisted on the irreducibility of the human being, rejecting the reductivism, the neutrality and monopoly of truth they feared to have seen in science. (Grayling, 2019) A central figure of postmodernism, Michel Foucault, repeatedly made the point that power plays an inherent part in the production of knowledge and what we count as knowledge. What we consider to be scientifically true therefore is not necessarily objective truth but a construct influenced by socio-political forces.
His analyses of the links between power, knowledge and societal structures challenged the impartiality and unbiased nature of scientific knowledge, positing that every piece of knowledge is contextual and influenced by specific viewpoints.
British scientist C.P. Snow delivered his lecture on The Two Cultures during the same period, highlighting the growing divide between the sciences and humanities in western society. He believed there to be too little understanding and communication between both separate parts, which halted progress overall. (Allen, n.d.)
Discussions like these emphasise the need for a more interdisciplinary approach to knowledge and methodology, bridging the gap between the sciences and humanities by finding a balance between respecting their unique attributes and acknowledging their interconnectedness.
Systems Theory
The General Systems Theory, proposed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in the mid-20th century, posits that all phenomena can be understood as an interconnected system of elements and that the structure and organisation of said systems are paramount to understanding them and their components.
Bertalanffy's goal was to unify the various aspects of organismic science that he had observed during his career as a biologist, arguing that these organisational principles are applicable to systems in general, whether they are biological, social etc. ("Systems theory", 2023)
The rise of Cybernetics and Complexity Theory added important layers to this. Cybernetics, developed by Norbert Wiener and others, focuses on feedback, control and circular causal processes in general as opposed to traditional linear cause-effect models prevalent in science. It is concerned with concepts like self-regulation and self-organisation of systems. ("Cybernetics", 2023)
Complexity theory, on the other hand, studies the behaviour of complex systems. It acknowledges the interdipendence and non-linearity of such systems, recognizing that small changes in initial conditions can, through feedback loops, trigger a large systemic effect and lead to drastically different outcomes. This is the central idea of Chaos Theory. (Systems Innovation, 2017)
The systems theory and its emphasis on holism and interconnectedness has important implications for scientific methodology. It recognises the interconnectedness and complexity of real-world problems and phenomena, thus advocating for interdisciplinary solutions and collaboration.
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