science as knowledge: the problem

science is 'organised common sense' - Thomas Huxley

(1825-1895)
'The man of science simply uses with scrupulous exactness the
method which we all, habitually and at every moment, use
carelessly.'

Common sense:

basic ability to perceive, understand, and

judge things which is shared by ("common to") nearly all
people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people
without any need for debate.
We can't always trust our common sense
contradictory common sense:
'absence makes the heart grow fonder'
versus
out of 'sight, out of mind'.

science as knowledge: the problem

science is 'organised common sense' - Thomas Huxley

(1825-1895)
'The man of science simply uses with scrupulous exactness the
method which we all, habitually and at every moment, use
carelessly.'

Common sense:

basic ability to perceive, understand, and

judge things which is shared by ("common to") nearly all
people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people
without any need for debate.
We can't always trust our common sense
contradictory common sense:
'absence makes the heart grow fonder'
versus
out of 'sight, out of mind'.

science as knowledge: the problem

science is 'organised common sense' - Thomas Huxley

(1825-1895)
'The man of science simply uses with scrupulous exactness the
method which we all, habitually and at every moment, use
carelessly.'

Common sense:

basic ability to perceive, understand, and

judge things which is shared by ("common to") nearly all
people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people
without any need for debate.
We can't always trust our common sense
contradictory common sense:
'absence makes the heart grow fonder'
versus
out of 'sight, out of mind'.

science as knowledge: the problem

science is 'organised common sense' - Thomas Huxley

(1825-1895)
'The man of science simply uses with scrupulous exactness the
method which we all, habitually and at every moment, use
carelessly.'

Common sense:

basic ability to perceive, understand, and

judge things which is shared by ("common to") nearly all
people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people
without any need for debate.
We can't always trust our common sense
contradictory common sense:
'absence makes the heart grow fonder'
versus
out of 'sight, out of mind'.

What is wrong with this map?

Hobo-Dyer representation:

paradox of cartography: 'If a map is to be useful, it must of

necessity be imperfect'
slogan: The map is not the territory

Betrayal of images - Rene' Magritte (Belgian surrealist: 1898-1967)

paradox of cartography: 'If a map is to be useful, it must of

necessity be imperfect'
slogan: The map is not the territory

Betrayal of images - Rene' Magritte (Belgian surrealist: 1898-1967)

paradox of cartography: 'If a map is to be useful, it must of

necessity be imperfect'
slogan: The map is not the territory

Betrayal of images - Rene' Magritte (Belgian surrealist: 1898-1967)

Certainty
'What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.' Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
How do we know what is certain?

Certainty
'What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.' Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
How do we know what is certain?

The nature of knowledge

'Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts' - Feynman

(1918-88).
Who is an expert - someone who has knowledge!!!
'If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be
that of an expert saying it can't be done.' - Peter Ustinov
(1921-2004).

What we know
Generalised beliefs
I know
I believe
I justiably believe
what
what
what
what
what

is part of my common sense

I hear or read in words of a language
I perceive through senses or devices/machines
I reason out
I emotionally relate to

'Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the

absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satised with bad
ones.' - Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

Vague
Well-supported
Beyond reasonable doubt

Vague
Well-supported
Beyond reasonable doubt

Levels: knowledge vs. information,

second -hand knowledge: authority/testimony
cultural tradition
school
internet
expert opinion
news/media
limitations

rational and intuitive knowledge

Ways of knowing:
Language
Almost all education is language education - Neil Postman
(1931-2003)
Thought is not merely expressed in words, it comes into existence
through them - L Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Sapir (1884-1939)-Whorf (1879-1941) hypothesis: Language
determines our experience of reality, and we can see or think only
what our language allows us to see and think

Ways of knowing:
Language
Almost all education is language education - Neil Postman
(1931-2003)
Thought is not merely expressed in words, it comes into existence
through them - L Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Sapir (1884-1939)-Whorf (1879-1941) hypothesis: Language
determines our experience of reality, and we can see or think only
what our language allows us to see and think

Ways of knowing:

Language
Almost all education is language education - Neil Postman
(1931-2003)
Thought is not merely expressed in words, it comes into existence
through them - L Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Sapir (1884-1939)-Whorf (1879-1941) hypothesis: Language
determines our experience of reality, and we can see or think only
what our language allows us to see and think

Language is a complex phenomenon

1

rule-governed

intended

creative and open-ended

Ambiguity and secondary meaning

Consider the noun 'Dream'
1

A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring

involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.

A daydream; a reverie.

A state of abstraction; a trance.

A wild fancy or hope.

A condition or achievement that is longed for; an aspiration

One that is exceptionally gratifying, excellent, or beautiful

Harlem By Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
 And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
 like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

The language of science

Theory and quantication: Mathematics
Tools and methodology: technical vocabulary - little space for
ambiguity

problems of translation

Perception: the awareness of things through ve senses

The greatest calamity ... is not ... be born blind, but rather that
...should have eyes and yet fail to see - Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Are devices used in scientic experiments extension of our

senses?

Perception: the awareness of things through ve senses

The greatest calamity ... is not ... be born blind, but rather that
...should have eyes and yet fail to see - Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Are devices used in scientic experiments extension of our

senses?

Perception: the awareness of things through ve senses

The greatest calamity ... is not ... be born blind, but rather that
...should have eyes and yet fail to see - Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Are devices used in scientic experiments extension of our

senses?

Perception: the awareness of things through ve senses

The greatest calamity ... is not ... be born blind, but rather that
...should have eyes and yet fail to see - Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Are devices used in scientic experiments extension of our

senses?

Empiricism [John Locke (1632  1704)]: All knowledge is

ultimately based on our perception.
Common-sense realism: 'What you see is what is there' :
Perception is a passive and relatively straightforward process
which gives us an accurate picture of reality.
scientic realism: 'Atoms in the void'
phenomenalism (radical empiricism) [George Berkeley (1685 

1753); David Hume (1711  1776); John Stuart Mill (1806  1873)]:

'To be is to be perceived'

Perceptual illusions
sensation : provided by the world
interpretation : provided by our minds

Context
Expectations
The role of the unconscious

selectivity of perception
seeing and believing
'seeing is believing' versus 'believing is seeing'

science: 'Vulcan' - a planet between mercury and the sun?

History
Art

Reason
'You are not thinking, you are merely being logical - Niels Bohr
(1885-1962) to Albert Einstein
'The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman
is the man who has lost everything but his reason.'
- G K Chesterton (1874-1936).

Reason: gives us certainty?

premises=conclusions: gives us certainty?
Three kinds of reasoning
deductive
inductive
informal

Truth and validity

The validity of an argument is independent of the truth or
falsity of the premises it contains
An argument can be valid not only when its premises and
conclusions are false but also when premises are false and the
conclusion is true
the only situation that is impossible is a valid argument with
true premises and a false conclusions

Deduction

Induction

Denition
Reasoning from general to particular Reasoning from particular to general
Example
All metals expand when heated
Metal A expands when heated;
A is a metal
metal B expands when heated;
metal C expands when heated;
A expands when heated
all metals expand when heated.
Value
More certain
More informative
less informative than induction
less certain than deduction

How reliable is inductive reasoning?

What we know
Generalised beliefs
I know
I believe
I justiably believe
what
what
what
what
what

is part of my common sense

I hear or read in words of a language
I perceive through senses or devices/machines
I reason out
I emotionally relate to

General criteria of GOOD generalisations:

1

Number (of
instances

Variety (in

Exceptions (prove

Coherence (with everything else known): demand more

evidence to support surprising claims

Subject area (of expertise ): natural sciences vs. social sciences.

observations

observations

): look for a reasonable number of

): look for a variety of circumstances

the rule

): look actively for counterexamples.

Emotion:

Emotion:

Emotions provide the energy to engage in intellectual activity.

emotions as obstacle to knowledge
emotions as source of knowledge
intuition

Emotions provide the energy to engage in intellectual activity.

emotions as obstacle to knowledge

emotions as source of knowledge

intuition

Rationalisations
Biased perception
Fallacious reasoning
Emotive language
Biased
perception
Fallacious reasoning

Emotive language
Powerful
emotions

Intuitions
core intuitions
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing Pascal (1623-62)
Axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved
upon our pulses - Keats (195-1821)

subject-specic intuitions
social intuitions
natural and educated intuitions

Radical doubt
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/
The Truman Show (1998)

Radical doubt
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/

The Truman Show (1998)

'All truth is relative'

'Really, is that true?'
'Yes!'
'Absolutely true?'
'I guess not because I said that all truth is relative'
'So the statement

All truth is relative is only relatively true, right?

'Yes!'
'So it could be true for you and not for me
'Hang on!, I need to think about it'

Ad ignorantiam
Hasty generalisation
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
Ad hominem
Circular reasoning
Special pleading
Equivocation
False analogy
False dilemma
Loaded question

Claiming something is true because

it cannot be proved to be false
Generalising from insucient evidence
Confusing a correlation with a causal connection
Attacking/supporting a person rather than argument
Assuming the truth of what is supposed to be proven
double standards to excuse an individual/group
Using language ambiguously
Assuming that because two things are alike
in some respects they are alike in other respects
Assuming - only two black & white alternatives exist
question biased because it has a built in assumption

The role of Judgment

Danger: gullibility
scepticism

Danger: gullibility
scepticism

Reasonable knowledge: Evidence, Coherence

Justied true belief: Truth, belief

Reasonable knowledge: Evidence, Coherence

Justied true belief: Truth, belief

Vague
Well-supported
Beyond reasonable doubt

Vague
Well-supported
Beyond reasonable doubt