Aristotle's Science Philosophy

• The text explores the philosophy of science, covering topics from Aristotelian concepts to modern critiques.

Substance and Accident in Aristotle

• Aristotle defined substance as a particular object that exists on its own like an apple.
• Accidents are attributes that accompany a substance like color, size, or texture and don't exist independently

Science in Aristotelian Thought

• The birth of philosophy and science arose from abandoning mythical thinking for rational explanations uniting them until the Renaissance.
• Aristotle's formulation of science asks what things are and why, answering with four causes: material, formal, efficient, and final.
• The material cause is what something is made of.
• The formal cause is the essence that defines what it is.
• The efficient cause is who made it.
• The final cause is the purpose for which it was made.
• Material and formal causes are intrinsic to substance.
• Efficient and final causes are extrinsic to substance.
• Aristotle's universe is teleological, with everything oriented towards an end, seeking a goal, and having a reason for being.

Types of Science According to Aristotle

• Theoretical: seeks true knowledge like physics.
• Practical: studies action, like morals.
• Productive: studies the production of objects, like poetry.
• All sciences use the same logic, employing induction to derive general principles from empirical evidence.

The Origin of Modern Science

• The Renaissance was a period of transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age.
• Scientific knowledge was nourished through experimentation and verification from the 15th to 16th centuries.
• Galileo Galilei (16th-17th century) provided the mathematical explanations of the universe.
• Galilei is considered the precursor of modern physics.
• He laid the foundation for the hypothetico-deductive method.
• Key characteristics for science are:
  • Experimentation
  • Mathematization
  • Application to the progress of humanity
  • Abandonment of medieval metaphysics

Rationalism and Empiricism

• Descartes (1596-1650) advocated for a philosophical method combining reason and mathematics.
• Descartes' rationalism supports the universal character of science and uses deduction.
• Rationalism considers reason as the foundation of knowledge.
• Empiricism denies the universal character of science.
• It maintains that experimentation is particular and contingent.
• Only possibilities can be inferred, not certainties.
• Empiricism relies on sensory data for knowledge and uses the inductive method like Hume.

Newtonian Physics and Kantian Synthesis

• Newton (1643-1727) was influenced by empiricism, valuing observation and experimentation.
• Kant (1724-1804) combined both rationalism and empiricism.
• It is only possible to know what is presented through the senses (empiricism), but this requires the structure of reason (rationalism).

Positivism

• The 19th century marked a definitive progress and diversification of science.
• Scientific advances led to a growing disinterest in speculative disciplines like philosophy.
• Positivism emerged in this context.
• Positivism considers scientific knowledge as the only authentic knowledge.
• Science is limited to studying what can be observed and experimented; truth is only attainable through science.
• Auguste Comte (18th-19th century) is known as the primary proponent of positivism.
• Philosophers have a secondary role, reflecting on science.
• Comte's theory of the three stages in "Course of Positive Philosophy" holds that human progress goes through a series of phases or stages, which are:
  • Theological Stage: natural phenomena are interpreted as the result of supernatural forces like religiosity.
  • Metaphysical Stage: the supernatural is replaced by abstract metaphysical proposals or essences.
  • Positive Stage: focuses on discovering the laws that govern phenomena.

Logical Positivism or Neopositivism

• This movement emphasizes that authentic knowledge is scientific.
• They believe the scientific method is based on experimentation and verification.
• It is the only way to achieve certainties.
• Logical positivism is a synthesis between empiricism and positivism. The knowledge from metaphysics is disassociated and scientific knowledge is viewed as the sole means to decipher reality.
• The scientific criterion follows the "criterion of verification," where a statement is true if verifiable through empirical evidence.
• Induction is employed to establish generalities from particular facts.
• Metaphysics is excluded from the scientific paradigm and is considered absurd due to the inability to verify its propositions.

The Strange Case of the Inductivist Turkey: The Problem of Induction

• Induction cannot be justified on strictly logical grounds.
• Bertrand Russell's inductivist turkey is a good example.
• The turkey observed that every morning at 9 am in the aviary farm he got food.
• The turkey gathered various observations over time in diverse conditions and concluded it "always eats at 9 a.m."
• On Christmas Eve, it had its head cut off instead of receiving food.
• An inductive inference with true premises led to a false conclusion.

Toward a Revision of Science: Popper and Kuhn

• Karl Popper (1902-1994) replaced the neopositivist "criterion of verification" with the "criterion of demarcation".
• Popper stated complete certainty in generalizations is not definite, so inductive verification is not reliable for science.
• According to Popper, a theory is scientific if it can be falsified or refuted; meaning the criterion is now based on empirical falsification rather than verification.
• Propositions derived from Newton's physics were valid until refuted by Einstein's theory of relativity.
• Demarcation distinguishes science (falsifiable) from non-science (pseudoscience).
• Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) considers how science has evolved historically.
• Kuhn believed falsificationism cannot explain major changes in science.
• Therefore, Kuhn introduced the concept of a scientific paradigm, which is a set of beliefs and ideas at a given time.
• Scientific work during an active paradigm is called "normal science".
• Science evolves through paradigm shifts, known as "scientific revolutions".
• Paradigms shift when old ideas conflict and no longer meet expectations.
• Newton's physics (normal science) was superseded by Einstein's through a scientific revolution.

The Scientific Method

• Determine the fact to observe.
• Observe the fact.
• Develop hypothesis.
• Contrast the hypothesis.
• Formulate the law.
• Register the law in theory.

The Structure of Science

• The scientific method has organized knowledge in natural sciences, offering explanatory models integrated by laws, theories, and paradigms.
• Science studies facts or events that can be observed and recorded.
• A scientific law is the expression of regularity in natural events.
• A scientific theory articulates different laws, facts, and observations in a specific area of nature.
• A scientific paradigm encompasses diverse, related theories that explain reality globally.

Critical Reflection on Science: The Frankfurt School

• Since the Renaissance and the scientific revolution, technique has been seen as the primary means of dominating nature.
• In the 19th century, Karl Marx, and in the 20th century, Adorno and Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School analyzed industrialized societies and the role of science and technology within them.
• Technology embodies instrumental rationality through a calculating reason that seeks the best means for unlimited exploitation of nature without questioning the moral value of this goal.
• Science and technology are not neutral and serve the dominant classes.
• Industrial societies are turning human beings into selfish and materialistic conformists because a manipulated individual is needed for a functioning society.
• Mass media manipulate individuals to conform to the system.
• Media transmit ideologies and models of behavior (e.g., buying makes us happy) that individuals accept uncritically.
• The Frankfurt School proposes critical theory, which analyzes and questions the morality of science and technology, as compared to the instrumental reason that questions nothing.