study+guide+2

Concepts:

fallacy of affirming the consequent underdetermination Bacon's idols of the mind Hume's critique of causation the problem of induction (context of) discovery and justification hypothetico-deductivism instantial model the raven paradox the grue problem the discovery of Neptune phlogiston Kuhnian paradigms incommensurability theory-ladenness of observation value-neutrality Copernican revolution social constructivism

Kuhn Quotes (all page numbers are C&C):

“The differences between successive paradigms are both necessary and irreconcilable” (94)

“What the tradition sees as eliminable imperfections in its rules of choice I take to be in part responses to the essential nature of science.” (110)

“What from one viewpoint may seem the looseness and imperfection of choice criteria conceived as rules may, when the same criteria are seen as values, appear an indispensable means of spreading the risk which the introduction or support of novelty always entails.” (112)

Study questions

1. Defend or criticize the following: "The problem of underdetermination is just a restatement of the fallacy of affirming the consequent."

2. Write an essay in which you explain to someone not very familiar with philosophy of science why the Copernican Revolution is philosophically and not just historically interesting. Be sure to reference specific empirical problems, for example stellar parallax or the tower argument.

3. Explain the distinction between the context of discovery and the context of justification. How is it used by critics of Kuhn and what are Kuhn's grounds for rejecting this distinction?