CDT403 Research Methodology in Natural Sciences and Engineering Theory of Science SCIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, TRUT H, MEANING Go

1. CDT403 Research Methodology in Natural Sciences and Engineering Theory of Science SCIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH, MEANING Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic School of Innovation, Design and Engineering Mälardalen University

2. Theory of Science Lecture 1SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE: TRUTH, MEANING. FORMAL LOGICAL SYSTEMS PRESUPPOSITIONS Lecture 2 LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION. CRITICAL THINKING. PSEUDOSCIENCE - DEMARCATION Lecture 3SCIENCE AND RESEARCH: TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETAL ASPECTS. PROGRESS. HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY. POSTMODERNISM AND CROSSDISCIPLINES Lecture 4 GOLEM LECTURE. ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION: THEORY OF RELATIVITY, COLD FUSION, GRAVITATIONAL WAVES Lecture 5 COMPUTING HISTORY OF IDEAS Lecture 6 PROFESSIONAL & RESEARCH ETHICS

3. Science, Knowledge, Truth and Meaning CRITICAL THINKING WHAT IS SCIENCE? WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC METHOD? WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH AND MEANING FORMAL SYSTEMS AND THE CLASSICAL MODEL OF SCIENCE

4. Course Material • Course web page http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ct3340/ • Theory of Science Compendium G Dodig-Crnkovic • The Golem: What You Should Know about Science Harry M. Collins & Trevor Pinch

5. Red Thread: Critical Thinking “Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.” Hypatia,natural philosopher and mathematician

6. Haiku – Like Highlights .遠山が目玉にうつるとんぼ哉 tôyama ga medama ni utsuru tombo kana the distant mountain reflected in his eyes... dragonfly Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827) (Haiku form: 5-7-5 syllables)

7. What Is Science? EyeMaurits Cornelis Escher

8. 1. Definitions by Goal (Result) and Process (1) science from Latin scientia,scire to know; 1: a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study 2: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method

9. 1. Definitions by Goal (Result) and Process (2) 3: such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena :natural science 4: a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws <engineering is both a science and an art>

10. 2. Science: Definitions by Contrast To do science is to search for repeated patterns, not simply to accumulate facts. Robert H. MacArthur Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt. Richard Feynman

11. 3. Empirical approach. What Sciences are there?Dewey Decimal Classification®http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/8866/15urls.html 000 - & Psychology 200 - ReliComputers, Information & GeneralReference 100 - Philosophy gion 300 - Social sciences 400 - Language 500 - Science 600 - Technology 700 - Arts & Recreation 800 - Literature 900 - History & Geography

12. 3. Dewey Decimal Classification® 500 – Science 510 Mathematics 520 Astronomy 530 Physics 540 Chemistry 550 Earth Sciences & Geology 560 Fossils & Prehistoric Life 570 Biology & Life Sciences 580 Plants (Botany) 590 Animals (Zoology)

13. 4. Language Based Scheme Classical Sciences in their Cultural Context – Logic & Mathematics 1 Natural Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, …) 2 Culture (Religion, Art, …) 5 Social Sciences (Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, …) 3 The Humanities (Philosophy, History,Linguistics …) 4

14. 5. Understanding what science is by understanding what scientists do "Scientists are people of very dissimilar temperaments doing different things in very different ways. Among scientists are collectors, classifiers and compulsive tidiers-up; many are detectives by temperament and many are explorers; some are artists and others artisans. There are poet-scientists and philosopher-scientists and even a few mystics." Peter Medawar, Pluto's Republic

15. 6. Critique of Usual Naïve Image of Scientific Method (1) The narrow inductivist conception of scientific inquiry • All facts are observed and recorded. • All observed facts are analyzed, compared and classified, without hypotheses or postulates other than those necessarily involved in the logic of thought. • Generalizations inductively drawn as to the relations, classificatory or causal, between the facts. • Further research employs inferences from previously established generalizations.

16. Critique of Usual Naïve Image of Scientific Method (2) This narrow idea of scientific inquiry is groundless for several reasons: 1.   A scientific investigation could never get off the ground, for a collection of all facts would take infinite time, as there are infinite number of facts. The only possible way to do data collection is to take only relevant facts. But in order to decide what is relevant and what is not, we have to have a theory or at least a hypothesis about what is it we are observing.

17. Critique of Usual Naïve Image of Scientific Method (3) A hypothesis (preliminary theory) is needed to give the direction to a scientific investigation! 2.  A set of empirical facts can be analyzed and classified in many different ways. Without hypothesis, analysis and classification are blind. 3.  Induction is sometimes imagined as a method that leads, by mechanical application of rules, from observed facts to general principles. Unfortunately, such rules do not exist!

18. Why is it not possible to derive hypothesis (theory) directly from the data? (1) • For example, theories about atoms contain terms like “atom”, “electron”, “proton”, etc; yet what one actually measures are spectra (wave lengths), traces in bubble chambers, calorimetric data, etc. • So the theory is formulated on a completely different (and more abstract) level than the observable data! • The transition from data to theory requests creative imagination!

19. Why is it not possible to derive hypothesis (theory) directly from the data?* (2) • Scientific hypothesis is formulated based on “educated guesses” at the connections between the phenomena under study, at regularities and patterns that might underlie their occurrence. Scientific guesses are completely different from any process of systematic inference. • The discovery of important mathematical theorems, like the discovery of important theories in empirical science, requires inventive ingenuity. *Here is instructive to study Automated discovery methods in order to see how much theory must be used in order to extract meaning from the “raw data”

21. EXISTING THEORIES AND OBSERVATIONS HYPOTHESIS PREDICTIONS 2 3 1 TESTS AND NEW OBSERVATIONS 4 SELECTION AMONG COMPETING THEORIES 6 The Scientific Method Hypotesen måste justeras Hypothesis must be adjusted Hypothesis must be redefined Consistency achieved The hypotetico-deductive cycle EXISTING THEORY CONFIRMED (within a new context) or NEW THEORY PUBLISHED 5 The scientific-community cycle

22. Formulating Research Questions and Hypotheses Different approaches: Intuition – (Educated) Guess Analogy Symmetry Paradigm Metaphor and many more ..

23. Criteria to Evaluate Theories When there are several rivaling hypotheses number of criteria can be used for choosing a best theory. Following can be evaluated: • Theoretical scope • Heuristic value (heuristic: rule-of-thumb or argument derived from experience) • Parsimony (simplicity, Ockham’s razor) • Esthetics • Etc.

24. Criteria which Good Scientific Theory Shall Fulfill • Logically consistent • Consistent with accepted facts • Testable • Consistent with related theories • Interpretable: explain and predict • Parsimonious • Pleasing to the mind (Esthetic, Beautiful) • Useful (Relevant/Applicable)

25. Ockham’s Razor (Occam’s Razor)(Law Of Economy, Or Law Of Parsimony, Less Is More!) A philosophical statement developed by William of Ockham, (1285–1347/49), a scholastic, that Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate;“Plurality should not be assumed without necessity.” The principle gives precedence to simplicity; of two competing theories, the simplest explanation of an entity is to be preferred.

26. What Is Knowledge?Plato´s Definition Plato believed that we learn in this life by remembering knowledge originally acquired in a previous life, and that the soul already has knowledge, and we learn by recollecting what in fact the soul already knows. Plato offers three analyses of knowledge, [dialogues Theaetetus 201 and Meno 98] all of which Socrates rejects.

27. What Is Knowledge?Plato´s Definition Plato's third definition: "Knowledge is justified, true belief. " The problem with this concerns the word “justified”. All interpretations of “justified” are deemed inadequate. Edmund Gettier, in the paper called "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?“ argues that knowledge is not the same as justified true belief. (Gettier Problem)

28. What Is Knowledge?Descartes´ Definition "Intuition is the undoubting conception of an unclouded and attentive mind, and springs from the light of reasons alone; it is more certain than deduction itself in that it is simpler." “Deduction by which we understand all necessary inference from other facts that are known with certainty,“ leads to knowledge when recommended method is being followed.

29. What Is Knowledge?Descartes´ Definition "Intuitions provide the ultimate grounds for logical deductions. Ultimate first principles must be known through intuition while deduction logically derives conclusions from them. These two methods [intuition and deduction] are the most certain routes to knowledge, and the mind should admit no others."

30. What Is Knowledge? • Propositional knowledge: knowledge that such-and-such is the case. • Non-propositional knowledge (tacit knowledge):theknowing how to do something.

31. Sources of Knowledge • A Priori Knowledge (built in, developed by evolution and inheritance) • Perception (“on-line input”, information acquisition) • Reasoning (information processing) • Testimony (network, communication)

32. Knowledge and Objectivity: Observations Observations are always interpreted in the context of an a priori knowledge. (Kuhn, Popper) “What a man sees depends both upon what he looks at and also upon what his previous visual-conceptual experience has taught him to see”.

33. Knowledge and Objectivity Observations • All observation is potentially ”contaminated”, whether by our theories, our worldview or our past experiences. • It does not mean that science cannot ”objectively” [inter-subjectivity] choose from among rival theories on the basis of empirical testing. • Although science cannot provide one with hundred percent certainty, yet it is the most, if not the only, objective mode of pursuing knowledge.

34. Perception and “Direct Observation”

35. Perception and “Direct Observation”

36. Perception and “Direct Observation”

37. Perception and “Direct Observation”

38. Perception and “Direct Observation” "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Einstein

39. Perception and “Direct Observation”

40. Perception and “Direct Observation”

41. Perception and “Direct Observation”

42. Perception and “Direct Observation”

44. Perception and “Direct Observation” Checker-shadow illusion http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html See even: http://persci.mit.edu/people/adelson/publications/gazzan.dir/gazzan.htm Lightness Perception and Lightness Illusions http://www.ihu.his.se/~christin/Vetenskapsteori/Vetenskapsteorikurser

45. Direct Observation?! An atom interferometer, which splits an atom into separate wavelets, can allow the measurement of forces acting on the atom. Shown here is the laser system used to coherently divide, redirect, and recombine atomic wave packets (Yale University).

46. Direct Observation?! Electronic signatures produced by collisions of protons and antiprotons in the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab provided evidence that the elusive subatomic particle known as top quark has been found.

47. Knowledge Justification • Foundationalism (uses architectural metaphor to describe the structure of our belief systems. The superstructure of a belief system inherits its justification from a certain subset of beliefs – all rests on basic beliefs.) • Coherentism • Internalism (a person has “cognitive grasp”) and Externalism (external justification)

48. Truth (1) • The correspondence theory • The coherence theory • The deflationary theory

49. Truth (2)The Correspondence Theory A common intuition is that when I say something true, my statement corresponds to the facts. But: how do we recognize facts and what kind of relation is this correspondence?

50. Truth (3)The Coherence Theory Statements in the theory are believed to be true because being compatible with other statements. The truth of a sentence just consists in its belonging to a system of coherent statements. The most well-known adherents to such a theory was Spinoza (1632-77), Leibniz (1646-1716) and Hegel (1770-1831). Characteristically they all believed that truths about the world could be found by pure thinking, they were rationalists and idealists. Mathematics was the paradigm for a real science; it was thought that the axiomatic method in mathematics could be used in all sciences.