Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Roots of Reference', 'Intro to Positive Philosophy' and 'Philosophy of Science: Very Short Intro (2nd ed)'

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24 ideas

1. Philosophy / B. History of Ideas / 1. History of Ideas
12104 All ideas must be understood historically [Comte]
12105 Our knowledge starts in theology, passes through metaphysics, and ends in positivism [Comte]
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 6. Metaphysics as Conceptual
12112 Metaphysics is just the oversubtle qualification of abstract names for phenomena [Comte]
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 2. Positivism
12106 Positivism gives up absolute truth, and seeks phenomenal laws, by reason and observation [Comte]
12111 Positivism is the final state of human intelligence [Comte]
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism
12114 Science can drown in detail, so we need broad scientists (to keep out the metaphysicians) [Comte]
12116 Only positivist philosophy can terminate modern social crises [Comte]
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 2. Reduction
22180 Multiple realisability is said to make reduction impossible [Okasha]
8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 3. Powers as Derived
14296 Dispositions are physical states of mechanism; when known, these replace the old disposition term [Quine]
12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 4. Pro-Empiricism
12108 All real knowledge rests on observed facts [Comte]
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 1. Observation
12109 We must observe in order to form theories, but connected observations need prior theories [Comte]
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 3. Experiment
22177 Randomised Control Trials have a treatment and a control group, chosen at random [Okasha]
22172 Not all sciences are experimental; astronomy relies on careful observation [Okasha]
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 6. Falsification
22174 The discoverers of Neptune didn't change their theory because of an anomaly [Okasha]
22175 Science mostly aims at confirming theories, rather than falsifying them [Okasha]
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 1. Scientific Theory
22182 Theories with unobservables are underdetermined by the evidence [Okasha]
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 5. Commensurability
22185 Two things can't be incompatible if they are incommensurable [Okasha]
14. Science / C. Induction / 1. Induction
22176 Induction is inferences from examined to unexamined instances of a given kind [Okasha]
14. Science / C. Induction / 6. Bayes's Theorem
22178 If the rules only concern changes of belief, and not the starting point, absurd views can look ratiional [Okasha]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / e. Lawlike explanations
12107 Positivism explains facts by connecting particular phenomena with general facts [Comte]
16. Persons / C. Self-Awareness / 3. Limits of Introspection
12115 Introspection is pure illusion; we can obviously observe everything except ourselves [Comte]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 7. Eliminating causation
12113 The search for first or final causes is futile [Comte]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / e. Anti scientific essentialism
12110 We can never know origins, purposes or inner natures [Comte]
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / b. Laws of motion
22173 Galileo refuted the Aristotelian theory that heavier objects fall faster [Okasha]