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Scientism
Scientism is the belief that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality. While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientists", some scholars, as well as political and religious leaders, have also adopted it as a pejorative term with the meaning "an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities)". Overview Francis Bacon has been viewed by some scholars as an early proponent of scientism, but this is a modern assertion as Bacon was a devout Anglican, writing in his Essays, "a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." With respect to the philosophy of science, the term ''scientism'' frequently implies a critique of the more extreme expressions of logical positivism and ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Counter-Revolution Of Science
''The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason'' is a 1952 book by Nobel laureate economist Friedrich Hayek. In it Hayek condemns the positivist view of the social sciences for what he sees as scientism, arguing that attempts to apply the methods of natural science to the study of social institutions necessarily overlook the dispersed knowledge of the individuals which compose those institutions. Synopsis This book is divided into three parts. The first is a reworking of Hayek's essay "Scientism and the Study of Society". The second part is an intellectual history of French positivism. Hayek lifts the title of the book from a name given to the movement by Louis de Bonald, a French counter-revolutionary and contemporary of Saint-Simon. The last segment examines Comte and Hegel, and their similar takes on the philosophy of history. The first two sections were both originally published in the peer-reviewed magazine '' Economica'', in the early 1940s. In H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) was an Austrian-born British academic and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal for work on money and economic fluctuations, and the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena. His account of how prices communicate information is widely regarded as an important contribution to economics that led to him receiving the prize. He was a major contributor to the Austrian school of economics. During his teenage years, Hayek fought in World War I. He later said this experience, coupled with his desire to help avoid the mistakes that led to the war, drew him into economics. He earned doctoral degrees in law in 1921 and political studies in 1923 from the University of Vienna. He subsequently lived and worked in Austria, Great Britain, the United Sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knowledge
Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often characterized as Truth, true belief that is distinct from opinion or guesswork by virtue of Justification (epistemology), justification. While there is wide agreement among philosophers that propositional knowledge is a form of true belief, many controversies focus on justification. This includes questions like how to understand justification, whether it is needed at all, and whether something else besides it is needed. These controversies intensified in the latter half of the 20th century due to a series of thought experiments called ''Gettier cases'' that provoked alternative definitions. Knowledge can be produced in many ways. The main source of empirical knowledge is perception, which involves the usage of the senses to learn about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, computer scientist, and figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He contributed to the studies of philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science. Outside philosophy, Putnam contributed to mathematics and computer science. Together with Martin Davis (mathematician), Martin Davis he developed the Davis–Putnam algorithm for the Boolean satisfiability problem and he helped demonstrate the unsolvability of Hilbert's tenth problem. Putnam applied equal scrutiny to his own philosophical positions as to those of others, subjecting each position to rigorous analysis until he exposed its flaws. As a result, he acquired a reputation for frequently changing his positions. In philosophy of mind, Putnam argued against the type physicalism, type-identity of mental and physical states based on his hypothesis of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Midgley
Mary Beatrice Midgley (' Scrutton; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018) was a British philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University, she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights. She wrote her first book, ''Beast and Man'' (1978), when she was in her late fifties, and went on to write over 15 more, including ''Animals and Why They Matter'' (1983), ''Wickedness'' (1984), ''The Ethical Primate'' (1994), ''Evolution as a Religion'' (1985), and ''Science as Salvation'' (1992). She was awarded honorary doctorates by Durham and Newcastle universities. Her autobiography, ''The Owl of Minerva'', was published in 2005. Midgley strongly opposed reductionism and scientism, and argued against any attempt to make science a substitute for the humanities. She wrote extensively about what she thought philosophers can learn from nature, particularly from animals. Midgley insisted that humans ought to be understood as first and foremost, a kind of anim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophy Of Science
Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultimate purpose and meaning of science as a human endeavour. Philosophy of science focuses on metaphysical, epistemic and semantic aspects of scientific practice, and overlaps with metaphysics, ontology, logic, and epistemology, for example, when it explores the relationship between science and the concept of truth. Philosophy of science is both a theoretical and empirical discipline, relying on philosophical theorising as well as meta-studies of scientific practice. Ethical issues such as bioethics and scientific misconduct are often considered ethics or science studies rather than the philosophy of science. Many of the central problems concerned with the philosophy of science lack contemporary consensus, including whether ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Science
Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and reproducibility of findings are used to try to ensure the validity of scientific advances. Natural science can be divided into two main branches: list of life sciences, life science and Outline of physical science, physical science. Life science is alternatively known as biology. Physical science is subdivided into branches: physics, astronomy, Earth science and chemistry. These branches of natural science may be further divided into more specialized branches (also known as fields). As empirical sciences, natural sciences use tools from the formal sciences, such as mathematics and logic, converting information about nature into measurements that can be explained as clear statements of the "laws of science, laws of nature". Mode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reality
Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions about the nature of reality, existence, or being are considered under the rubric of ontology, a major branch of metaphysics in the Western intellectual tradition. Ontological questions also feature in diverse branches of philosophy, including the philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, religion, philosophy of mathematics, mathematics, and philosophical logic, logic. These include questions about whether only physical objects are real (e.g., physicalism), whether reality is fundamentally immaterial (e.g., idealism), whether hypothetical unobservable entities posited by scientific theories exist (e.g., scientific realism), whether God exists, whether numbers and other abstract objects exist, and whether possible worlds exist. Etymology a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argument From Authority
An argument from authority is a form of argument in which the opinion of an authority figure (or figures) who lacks relevant expertise is used as evidence to support an argument. The argument from authority is an informal fallacy, and obtaining knowledge in this way is fallible. Forms Deductive This argument is a form of genetic fallacy; in which the conclusion about the validity of a statement is justified by appealing to the characteristics of the person who is speaking, such as also in the '' ad hominem'' fallacy. For this argument, Locke coined the term ''argumentum ad verecundiam'' (appeal to shamefacedness/modesty) because it appeals to the fear of humiliation by appearing disrespectful to a particular authority. This qualification as a logical fallacy implies that this argument is invalid when using the deductive method, and therefore it cannot be presented as infallible. In other words, it is logically invalid to prove a claim is true simply because an authority has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterargument
In reasoning and argument mapping, a counterargument is an objection to an objection. A counterargument can be used to rebut an objection to a premise, a main contention or a lemma. Synonyms of counterargument may include rebuttal, reply, counterstatement, counterreason, comeback and response. An attempt to rebut an argument may involve generating a counterargument, or finding a counterexample. Use To speak of counterarguments is not to assume that there are only two sides to a given issue nor that there is only one type of counterargument. For a given argument, there are often a large number of counterarguments, some of which are not compatible with each other. A counterargument might seek to cast doubt on facts of one or more of the first argument's premises, to show that the first argument's contention does not follow from its premises in a valid manner, or the counterargument might pay little attention to the premises and common structure of the first argument and simply at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the process of analyzing available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to make sound conclusions or informed choices. It involves recognizing underlying assumptions, providing justifications for ideas and actions, evaluating these justifications through comparisons with varying perspectives, and assessing their rationality and potential consequences. The goal of critical thinking is to form a judgment through the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and evaluation. In modern times, the use of the phrase ''critical thinking'' can be traced to John Dewey, who used the phrase ''reflective thinking,'' which depends on the knowledge base of an individual; the excellence of critical thinking in which an individual can engage varies according to it.Piergiovanni, P. R.Creating a Critical Thinker ''College Teaching'', Vol. 62, No. 3 (July–September 2014), pp. 86-93, accessed 26 January 2023 According to philosopher Richard W. Paul, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empirical Evidence
Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how the terms ''evidence'' and ''empirical'' are to be defined. Often different fields work with quite different conceptions. In epistemology, evidence is what Justification (epistemology), justifies beliefs or what determines whether holding a certain belief is rational. This is only possible if the evidence is possessed by the person, which has prompted various epistemologists to conceive evidence as private mental states like experiences or other beliefs. In philosophy of science, on the other hand, evidence is understood as that which ''Scientific method#Confirmation, confirms'' or ''disconfirms'' Hypothesis#Scientific hypothesis, scientific hypotheses and arbitrates between competing theories. For this role, evidence must be public and uncont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
