STS112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Augsburg, Scientific Method
8 Jun 2018
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Week 4: Tycho
Tycho
• Tycho was born 2.5 years after the death of Copernicus into a wealthy Danish noble family with links to the
King
• His work is often downplayed or ignored in Whig histories mainly because it complicates simple versions of
the way science is meant to progress.
• Became interested in Astrology and Astronomy even noting as a teenage student errors in various standard
observations and predictions – Continued studies in Astronomy at a number of key Protestant centres of
learning such as Wittenberg, Augsberg, and Basle
• Steadily developed a reputation across Europe as an important astronomer: although at this time as a
profession it would have been below his rank as a nobleman
• Managed to secure generous grants for much of his early career from the Danish Crown also secured major
inheritances. These provided him with resources to build astronomical instruments and set up a number of
impressive observatories
Observational Problems with Ptolemy and Aristotle
• In 1572 supernova appeared, Tycho was able to accurately observe and confirm that it was stationary in the
sky just as a star and not an atmospheric phenomenon
• In 1577 he carefully observed a comet he tracked its smooth path that seemed to take it between the planets
Problems with Copernicanism
• Tycho developed confidence in the idea that the evidence pointed to the planets orbiting the sun and that
they moved through some kind of ethereal fluid
• Couldn’t reconcile the idea that for the Stars to be as distant as Copernicus required that they have to be so
far away and unimaginably large
Reception of Tycho
• Planets are still orbiting off centre, he is unclear of what sort of mechanisms could allow such a system to
work
Week 4: Popper
Popper
• Born in Vienna in 1902, Popper was often described as being one of the most important philosophers of the
20th century best known for contributions to philosophy of science, political science and also cognitive
science
• As a young scholar became loosely associated with a group of philosophers calling themselves the Vienna
Circle who were Logical Positivists
• Wrote a book which would become an important influence on Philosophy of Science in 1935 ‘The Logic of
Scientific Discovery’ translated into English in 1959
• Became famous during the Cold War in particular, he was knighted (Sir) in 1965
• Popper’ work on science has over the last 2 or 3 decades (post-Cold War) been subject to considerable
critique
Problems with Traditional Models of Scientific Methods
• Were too soft, didn’t adequately explain the progress of science, were too slow, didn't account for the
importance of Eureka moments, and subjective motivations involved in scientific discovery, didn't account
for the social/psychology of perception, didn't adequately address traditional philosophical problems of
induction and uncertainty
Conjectures and Refutations
• The starting point to the scientific method (process) is by scientists making bold conjectures
o Scientists must be able to frame their conjecture (proposition, hypothesis etc.) in such a way that it can be
tested
o A conjecture that can’t be tested doesn’t even qualify to enter the next stage of the process and is not
scientific
o In framing conjectures so they can be tested Popper suggests that ones that are precise/detailed and
suggest bold predictions are better and more scientific than vague ones
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