نظرية التطور العلمي وتحدياتها

Introduction

• There are three possibilities when making a scientific discovery:
  • Integrating into existing knowledge without problems
  • Modifying some elements of the theory without challenging it (saving phenomena)
  • Completely overhauling the theory and potentially abandoning it in favor of a new one

Two Types of Models for Explaining Scientific Evolution

• Cumulative and continuous scientific progress.
• Discontinuous and non-cumulative scientific progress.

Different Perspectives on Scientific Evolution

• Karl Popper's falsification theory:

  • Emphasizes testing and potentially disproving theories.
  • Knowledge advances through a process of elimination.

• Thomas Kuhn's paradigm and scientific revolution:

  • Suggests that science progresses through periods of normal science and revolutionary paradigm shifts.
  • Change occurs in large-scale shifts in thought processes that challenge existing beliefs.

• Gaston Bachelard's epistemological ruptures and obstacles:

  • Focuses on the overcoming of obstacles and disruptions in understanding and progress.

Popper's Point of View

• Philosopher of knowledge.
• Published works include:
  • The Logic of Scientific Discovery.
  • The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge.
• Science, as a living being, is one of the ways in which humanity adapts to its environment.
• Popper identifies three levels of adaptation:
  • Genetic adaptation.
  • Behavioral adaptation through learning.
  • Scientific discoveries that represent a variation on behavioral adaptation.

Popper's Principles

• Scientists primarily aim to uphold rather than disprove their theories.
• Scientific progress stems from the evolutionary view that better adaptable theories improve human chances of survival.
• Scientific discovery is a function of both gradual acquisition and drastic change.
• Scientific advances depend on both preserving traditional knowledge and challenging existing theories through scrutiny and critical analysis.

Criteria for Adaptation

• Adaptive mechanisms (be it genetic, behavioral, or scientific) are characterized by instruction and selection processes.
• Instruction functions as the transmission of existing knowledge.
• Selection acts to eliminate errors and less adaptable ideas.
• Natural selection is involved in determining whether a specific theory amounts to a genuine scientific contribution.
• Instruction and selection are complementary aspects, like two sides of the same coin, driving scientific evolution forward.

Popper's Affirmations

• All three levels (genetic, behavioral, and scientific) involve the transmission of knowledge—via genes or tradition—to create new structures; these structures emerge from attempts to survive.
• Scientific progress is a result of new structural formations that result from trial-and-error methods that are driven by natural selection.

Popper's Recommendations

• A scientist, to help improve his/her theory, must expose it to the most stringent tests possible before its elimination by the natural selection process.
• Scientists should evaluate their theories without bias.
• Theories' successes should not automatically be taken as support; on the contrary, failures of refuted theories should be considered as clues to their flaws.

Popper on Scientific Progress

• Scientific progress is not just about accumulating facts but about revolutionizing and fundamentally reshaping the understanding of established knowledge in line with new developments and findings.

Popper's Method and Scientific Growth

• Popper lays out a three-part method that can illuminate scientific developments.
• Successful theories will explain all known data.
• Successful theories should challenge or contradict previous theories.
• Successful theories should extend or better account for previously unexplained facts.

Lakatos's Perspective on Popper

• Lakatos suggests that Popper's ideas were not fully guided by the historical process of scientific development, and that his view of theory growth isn't altogether accurate.
• While Popper acknowledges the continuity of scientific progress, he does not adequately express the element of conservation inherent in such progress.
• While Popper points towards the revolutionary nature of scientific progress, he does not fully elucidate the conservational aspect that is equally important.
• Lakatos notes a tension in Popper's conceptions of scientific progress—revolution/non-accumulation versus continuity/conservation.