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What's your favorite science? (pg. 16)
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by RJT
Hempel is something of a self-hating modern empiricist. He expands a lot on the work of the Vienna Circle, and in reality is just concerned with logical validity of arguments and the notion that complete objectivity is an impossible pursuit.
I didn't care much for his writing style, but he none-the-less had some interesting things to say once you got through the dense nature of his writing.
You can probably track down a copy of this (click) for relatively cheap. Though it's dense, it's pretty short, and if you're interested in Feyerarbend's work it might provide an interesting contrast.
Also, if you can manage to track down a copy of this textbook:
http://www.stevens-tech.edu/press/pr/pr139.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=bp...num=1&ct=result
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Techn...n/dp/0801858690
...for a reasonable price, it's probably the best historical look at the progression of science and technology I have ever read. I guess one could call it a "Philosophy of Science" book, but in truth it's much more a history of science and it's impact on various societies from pre-history through the modern age.
I really think you'd like it, I still read passages from it regularly.
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Thanks for the recommendations. I found out I can borrow some of these books from my local library, and I'm definitely going to do that as soon as I have the time :) |
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| lücid |
| quote: | Originally posted by glass
I'm a big fan of any science that involves turning baby's into food:gsmile: |
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| Axer |
:stongue: |
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| Omega_M |
| quote: | Originally posted by PETRAN
What Laws does biology have? |
Laws of physics. All of science fundamentally is physics. Physics btw, is my favorite science :tongue2
You can have a look at this to begin with. Doesn't exactly conclude what I say, but you can get a clue. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Omega_M
All of science fundamentally is physics |
You've got a sceptical Lira to convince now, M. How can you reduce behavioural,
social and information sciences to physics? :D |
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| RJT |
Determinate materialist metaphysics. :o |
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| Zewad |
suprised to see nobody mentioned earth science/ physical science..
plate tectonics etc...
(maybe they did, but 5 pages of lengthy responses was a bit too much to read)
im geography major... and we didnt learn the capitals |
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| eckmek |
| quote: | Originally posted by NeoPhono
Science, at its heart, is the gathering of repeatable, empirical data to prove or disprove a hypothesis. You can gather data on any hypothesis you'd like, but unless it's quantitative and repeatable, it's not science. It's like creationism. I can say "God created the Earth" as my hypothesis. Then I can say my data is the bible or tingly feelings I have when I think about it. Neither of those data are empirical or repeatable. In Sociology, I can say this event has this impact on a society. However, I can't say every time this event takes place, this exact result will happen (we're not talking behavioral biology, but sociology, keep that in mind). It's not repeatable. It's true that there are some theories in the "hard" sciences that aren't perfect, but the basis of physics, biology, etc. are those "laws" or repeatable theories, not the fringe ideas that had yet to be fully codified. I don't know of any core laws of Sociology, although correct me if I'm wrong.
History is the study of the past. Where is the science in that? |
Any science has that same problem. Only to varying degrees. This was the point i was trying to make. Any science has the problem that it can't ever with 100 % certainty predict what is going to happen. |
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| Omega_M |
| quote: | | Physics is the science of matter[1] and its motion,[2][3] as well as space and time.[4][5] It uses concepts such as energy, force, mass, and charge...Broadly, it is the general scientific analysis of nature, with a goal of understanding how the universe behaves.[7] |
:o |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by Omega_M
:o |
But, are the different human concepts of space and time to be considered by physicist at all? Can you (or should you) reduce human perception of this kind to physical phenomena? How can you reduce to physics an explanation concerning the fact that some tribes in Brazil gangbanged their prisoners? |
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