RE 150A Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Verificationism, Deductive Reasoning, Experimental Psychology
28 Jul 2020
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The first 20th century attempt at demarcation: observation, induction and verification. The second 20th century attempt at demarcation: falsification. Facts can be known through perception which involves an element of interpretation facts are influenced by background knowledge. The search for new facts is guided by the existing knowledge/ a theory changes the perception of the facts. New theory doesn"t have to be better, it"s just another one. All scientific knowledge is relative and time-dependent: postmodernists, question the special status of science, see scientific explanations as stories told by a particular group of scientists. Social constructions scientific knowledge is not objective. Science wars attack against the special status of science. The pragmatic alternative: pragmatic view: human knowledge is information about how to cope with the world, realism vs idealism debate: discussion about the extent to which human perception and understanding correspond to a physical reality.
