Knowing

epistemology, science, kinds of knowledge, methodology

Histories and stories

If all entities were completely identical, they could not be distinguished from each other so there would be only one entity.  If all things were completely unique, they could not be identified so there would be no knowledge.  Since neither of these extremes is the case, we conclude that entities contain sufficient similarity to be […]

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Who’s on first?

Before the 19th century natural science was part of philosophy. It was called ‘natural philosophy’ (usually) or ‘experimental philosophy’ (Newton). Philosophy provided the background and justification for the development of empirical methods to study the world. Natural science pre-supposed and depended on philosophy. By the 19th century the discipline matured so that it could be

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Science and theology

Some people try to exclude arguments about theology from science. This is part of a strategy that goes like this: Science is the only reliable source of knowledge about the natural world. Science excludes all arguments about theology. Therefore, wherever science goes, theology must retreat. Also, theology has no knowledge to contribute to science. If

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Science qualified and unqualified

Science is about public matters that do not require prior philosophical or religious commitments beyond acknowledging the existence of an orderly world and the possibility of understanding that order.  Historically, science did receive impetus from beliefs about the orderliness of the world and human abilities for understanding that order, beliefs that were based on Christian

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Dialogue on induction

Greek Coffee Philario was sitting in the coffee shop, typing into his computer when he saw his friend Hector and greeted him. Philario:  Hi, Hector.  What’s up? Hector:  Well said, Philario.  What is up.  Who is down. Philario:  Are you trying to Costello me? Hector:  I wasn’t Abbott to do that. Philario:  Very funny.  I’m

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The Darwinian evolution paradigm

The Darwinian evolution paradigm is based on the evolution paradigm and forms a “bundle of theories” that are contrary to the special creation paradigm. It concerns the origin and development of organic life on earth. 1. Science and History The subject of natural history is primarily natural science and secondarily history. The laws and generalizations

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Approaching the unknown

We have some knowledge but it is not complete knowledge, not even arguably near complete. So what should we do about the areas where knowledge is lacking? We should certainly continue to investigate. But what do we say in the mean time? What can we justify saying about the unknown side of partial knowledge? There

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Theory selection and time

There are several criteria commonly used to select the best scientific theory, including consistency, confirmation, and comprehensiveness.  We discuss two criteria in particular: (1)  “Avoid metaphysics.”  Modern science has a long history of avoiding metaphysics.  Science was often contrasted with the wrangling of metaphysicians.  While some metaphysical assumptions/presuppositions may be inevitable, a theory is preferred

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Modes of science

There are three modes of science: descriptive, explanatory, and applied.  The descriptive mode consists of systematic observation of phenomena followed by discovery and empirical confirmation of general laws covering regularities in the observations.  The explanatory mode uses the observations and laws with assumptions that fill in gaps to tell a story of how and why

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The creation paradigm (1)

The term “paradigm” shall be used to indicate what Imré Lakatos called “research programmes.” For Lakatos, what we think of as a ‘theory’ may actually be a succession of slightly different theories and experimental techniques developed over time, that share some common idea, or what Lakatos called their ‘hard core’. Lakatos called such changing collections

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