Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [philosophy-of-science]

for applied philosophical questions about the study of science, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the scientific method

The philosophy of science involves posing applied philosophical questions about the study of science, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the scientific method.

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Is there anything that is totally random?

When I say totally random, I mean absolutely random, not pseudorandom. If I want to say "totally random" numbers such as 1,26,17,4,1 and 27, although I see them to be totally random, they aren't. These are numbers that I think are influenced by my…
Garmen1778
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Why is scientism philosophically wrong?

I think a combination of science and philosophy alone leads to closer to truth. Why is it that it is wrong to think that science alone leads to truth? Isn't empirical truth the only one we can be sure about? If there is any absolute truth at all,…
BlowMaMind
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The Unreasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics in most sciences

In 1960, the physicist Eugene Wigner wrote the article "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences" explaining how unexpected it is that mathematical formalism can make predictions about reality. Although his article was…
Davius
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Are philosophy and science mergeable today?

In the past, both Philosophy and Science were one. However, because of the vastness of Science, it was cut off. I am inclined to go along the same line of thinking, but, is there a way to merge both disciplines once again?
initial moon
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Thinkers and scientists opposed to philosophy?

I have heard of some thinkers having negative opinions on the use of philosophy. I want to understand this point of view. I would like to know the names of some thinkers, and especially scientists, who have held negative views of philosophy. What…
Sensebe
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When does absence of evidence imply evidence of absence?

There is a well known maxim that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In his book "The Black Swan", Nassim Taleb advocates this using a medical example - something along the lines of no evidence of disease is not the same as evidence of…
Daniel
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How NOT to know everything? Or how to deal with it

As a child I was mostly interested in biology, poetry, physics and mathematics, as a teenager I got interested in history, religion, languages and (of course) computers. I was (am?) pretty much sure that in order to study religion I'd need a solid…
Roenardi
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Can the history of science be used to derive a philosophy of science, with regard to Kuhn's philosophy?

Was introduced to Thomas Kuhn's philosophy of science and failed to understand how and why history of science can serve for more than descriptive purposes. Further, it seems that Kuhn believes that it is possible to describe history of science in a…
L.M. Student
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Have there really been paradigm shifts?

After reading about Kuhn's work, this question still keeps me wondering: Have there really been paradigm shifts, like Kuhn states? The examples of paradigm shifts often include the switch from geocentrism to heliocentrism, and of course Newtonian…
Harmen
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Confusion about reasoning in science

Situation 1: One puts the hypothesis (Call it hypothesis H1) that "there exists a force of attraction between every two masses". One obtains a high degree of belief in this hypothesis by testing it experimentally several times. Even though there…
Amr
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Why are physicists debating the "multiverse" so detached from professional philosophy?

Something curious is happening in some corners of fundamental physics these days, and I am wondering if professional philosophers of science are fully aware of this, or else why there is not more quality contribution to the discussion from those who…
Urs Schreiber
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What are the values of science research without immediate applications?

I am reading a bit about AI research lately. One major criticism of current wave of AI boom is that many high profile papers or projects, including Google’s famous AlphaGo, have not yet found any real applications. So Most of them are basically…
NonalcoholicBeer
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Is Information considered a genuine concept from physics?

Everybody agrees that the concepts of energy and momentum or the concept of spacetime are genuine concepts from physics. Not only that these concepts are used in physics. They are made precise in physics. What about the concept of information? The…
Jo Wehler
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Why have those scientists who rejected or opposed philosophy, still succeeded?

Preface: I know nothing about physics, and little about philosophy. This Scientific American article of 2015 May 8, this question, and this blog post of 2009 Nov 11 by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci reference some famous physicists who have opposed or…
user8572
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Can we dispense with ontology in physics?

Is it possible to have a satisfactory physics which is content to describe everything in terms of operational (functional) properties? Could it therefore be the case that ontology is a useless concept leading us down a philosophical rabbit hole to…
Andrew Palfreyman
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