Positivism’s View of Scientific Truth

1. Positivism’s View of Scientific Truth

2. Positivism • Movement founded and promoted by August Comte, the 19th century founder of Sociology • Suggested that Human History was passing through 3 inevitable stages • Religious • Metaphysical • Scientific • Founded a scientific “religion” of Positivism, with rituals and holidays and songs, to replace Christianity

3. Types of Truth Claim • Empirical (Facts): The Sky is blue; the moon is rocky • Evaluative: Murders is wrong; the Mona Lisa is beautiful (includes aesthetic claims) • Metaphysical: God exists; The world has a purpose • Analytic: 2+2=4; Bachelors are unmarried males (includes contradictory claims)

4. Context of Discovery vs. Context of Justification • Logical Positivists (20th century philosophical and scientific movement) felt the scientific method (combined with mathematical logic) was the one sure way to know whether any claim was true • Weren’t concerned with how scientists came to their theories (context of Discovery), just the neutral, rational and objectivemethod by which they were able to justify their theories (context of justification) • The fact that the discoverer of the benzene molecule was prompted by a dream of a snake eating its tail says nothing about the trustworthiness of science

5. Sentences • All truth claims (propositions) are sentences, but not all sentences are truth claims • Questions are not propositions • Exclamations are not propositions (Damn you! Doh! Ouch! Yuck!) • Commands are not truth claims (Go to your room! Stop that. Do not enter.)

6. Some examples of Analytic Truth Claims • All triangles have three sides • The moon can’t be both spherical and not spherical all at once • Adding 1 to any even number gives you an odd number

7. Some Examples of Metaphysical Truth Claims • God is eternal and unchanging • The universe has a purpose • Suffering has a purpose • Truth is beauty and beauty is truth • Love makes the world go round • All human beings are created equal • The cause of all suffering is due to our failure to extinguish desire

8. Some Examples of Empirical Truth Claims • All Alberta robins migrate south for the winter • This fossil can’t be both mammalian and Precambrian all at once • Adding one teaspoon of sugar to any drink increases its carbohydrate content.

9. Some Examples of Evaluative Truth Claims • All intentional acts of killing are wrong • You have a right to vote for whoever you wish • Adding a member of the general public to the panel makes the panel’s decision more fair • We shouldn’t do that, it’s too dangerous • J.S. Back is the greatest composer of the 18th century (an “aesthetic” statement)

10. What are these Sentences? • Eating meat is not wrong • Is eating meat wrong? • I think that eating meat is wrong • Mike doesn't think that eating meat is wrong • I once thought that eating meat was wrong • She does not realize that eating meat is wrong

11. The Verification Principle • “Principle that to be meaningful a sentence or proposition must be either verifiable by means of the five senses or a tautology of logic” • Logical Positivists felt that this principle was the heart of the scientific method (an algorithm for making judgments about claims and theories) • Any propositions that can’t measure up to it were essentially meaningless (mere expressions of feeling or imagination)

12. Scientism • Scientific Method is the only reliable way of gaining knowledge (finding the truth) • Objective • Open-minded • Universal • Cumulative • And Progressive • Religious and artistic thought is believed by positivists and believers in Scientism to be incapable of embodying any of these characteristics