HPS250H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Probabilism, Logical Positivism, Rudolf Carnap

• School: UTSG
• Department: History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
• Course: HPS250H1
• Professor: Hakob Barseghyan

Document Summary

Theory assessment: a method of appraisal is needed to determine which theory is better. Carnap: scientific theories cannot be proven, but they have different probabilities. Probabilism: prefer a theory which is more probable given the evidence. Popper: the objective probability of scientific theories is always 0, but they can have different empirical content. Poppe(cid:396)"s rules: p(cid:396)efe(cid:396) a theo(cid:396)(cid:455) (cid:449)ith (cid:272)o(cid:396)(cid:396)o(cid:271)o(cid:396)ated e(cid:454)(cid:272)ess e(cid:373)pi(cid:396)i(cid:272)al (cid:272)o(cid:374)te(cid:374)t. Lakatos: poppe(cid:396) is (cid:396)ight a(cid:271)out e(cid:373)pi(cid:396)i(cid:272)al (cid:272)o(cid:374)te(cid:374)t, (cid:271)ut he does(cid:374)"t see that s(cid:272)ie(cid:374)tists a(cid:272)tuall(cid:455) app(cid:396)aise research programmes, not individual theories. Lakatos"s m rp: p(cid:396)efe(cid:396) a (cid:373)o(cid:396)e p(cid:396)og(cid:396)essi(cid:448)e (cid:396)esea(cid:396)(cid:272)h p(cid:396)og(cid:396)a(cid:373)(cid:373)e. Feyerabend: logical positivists, popper and imre all assume that the scientific method is universal and unchangeable. Feyerabend: there is no universal and unchangeable method of science. The history of science shows that even the most popular methodological rules have been violated at one point of history or another, logical analysis reveals that all famous methodological theories have serious flaws.