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Full Idea
The object of scientific knowledge is what is necessary.
Clarification
'Necessary' things have to be the way they are. 'Knowledge' here is the Greek word 'epistemé'
Gist of Idea
The object of scientific knowledge is what is necessary
Source
Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1139b24)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.207
A Reaction
This is diametrically opposed to the Humean view, which takes the nature of each thing, and the laws which guide it, to be contingent. Kripke has pointed us towards necessities in nature.
| 76 | The object of scientific knowledge is what is necessary [Aristotle] |
| 2200 | All experimental conclusions assume that the future will be like the past [Hume] |
| 6782 | Realism is the only philosophy of science that doesn't make the success of science a miracle [Putnam] |
| 6601 | Science rules the globe because of colonising power, not inherent rationality [Feyerabend] |
| 3853 | For science to be rational, we must explain scientific change rationally [Newton-Smith] |
| 3859 | We do not wish merely to predict, we also want to explain [Newton-Smith] |
| 3870 | The real problem of science is how to choose between possible explanations [Newton-Smith] |
| 3329 | Presumably the statements of science are true, but should they be taken literally or not? [Benardete,JA] |
| 5334 | We resist science partly because it can't provide ethical wisdom [Flanagan] |
| 4588 | There is no such thing as 'science'; there are just many different sciences [Heil] |
| 3123 | Science is in the business of carving nature at the joints [Segal] |
| 6779 | Instrumentalists say distinctions between observation and theory vanish with ostensive definition [Bird] |