POS Week 3

critical rationalism

the main task of scientists is to purify science by searching for false claims and ideas

problems with adjustments in standard view

observation cannot be theory independent; problem of induction cannot be adequately resolved

Observation cannot be theory independent

observation is always dependent on the perspective that you take. We cannot observe anything if w have no idea what to look for

Search-light theory

concepts guide us in what to look for and infect our reporting of what we see; exception: Big Data

Problem of induction is not resolved

degree of confirmation approaches zero; striving for the highest-truth-likeliness will lead to undesirable results; we should not induct something based on X observed cases

Rationalist element in Popper's critical rationalism

develop theories that say as much as possible about reality

Critical element in Popper's critical rationalism

empirically test these theories as sharply as possible

Quine-Duhem thesis

when you find a conflicting example that is obtained, it does not lead to the immediate adjustment of the theory; the new observation must be first investigated in order to understand what happened for this conflicting example to come about

(Quine-Duhem) Conflict between theory and observation can be solved in two ways

Proposition I (the definition) is fale; Proposition II (the observation) is false