epistemology, science, kinds of knowledge, methodology
Different kinds of explanation may be distinguished by how they project phenomena onto ranges over pairs of opposites. For example, an explanation may focus on natural laws but acknowledge measurement error or noise as well. A combination of law and error/noise is one kind of explanation. Other kinds of explanations combine created and fallen aspects, gradual and […]
Data-driven (DD) science is focused on the collection and use of a diverse archive of observations. Data analysis discovers generalizations in the archive, which are inductively extrapolated to the world. This leads to a search for empirical consequences and their corroborating (or not) data via field observations and experiments. New results are added to the archive
There are different sources of knowledge: historical, scientific, engineering, business, philosophical, theological, etc. They work best when they work together. For example, even the best business could not construct a very good bridge if they ignored engineering knowledge. This also applies to the sciences. The natural sciences need to consider knowledge from history and engineering
Some creationists emphasize the difference in religious/metaphysical assumptions of creationism vs. evolutionism as if this explains almost all their differences. But if that were true, creationists should focus on defending their religious/metaphysical assumptions instead of criticizing evolution. Since they do spend much time criticizing evolution, they are at least implicitly saying they have enough in common with
In broad Aristotelian terms, this is how it happened: Aristotle articulated four types of causes — material, efficient (mechanism), formal (design), and final (purpose) — with the final cause as the most important. His biology tried to find these causes but he had to speculate about final causes and his biology failed. Fast-forward to Francil
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 ‘Research Programmes’. (1) Here is a description of three research programmes concerned mainly with
Nowadays there is increasing concern for a dialogue between science and “religion” – which usually means Christian religion. The implications of science for religion are discussed in serious tones and tomes. But if there is genuine dialogue, then the implications of religion for science should also be considered. However, there is a problem at this
