Demarcation problem

The demarcation problem (or boundary problem^[1]) in the philosophy of science is about how and where to draw the lines around science. The boundaries are commonly drawn between science and non-science, between science and pseudoscience, and between science and religion.^{[citation needed]} A form of this problem, known as the generalized problem of demarcation subsumes all three cases. The generalized problem looks for criteria for deciding which of two theories is the more scientific.^{[citation needed]}

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A priori and a posteriori

The terms a priori ("from the former") and a posteriori ("from the latter") are used in philosophy (epistemology) to distinguish two types of knowledge, justifications or arguments. A priori knowledge or justification is independent of experience (for example 'All bachelors are unmarried'); a posteriori knowledge or justification is dependent on experience or empirical evidence (for example 'Some bachelors are very happy'). A priori justification makes reference to experience; but the issue concerns how one knows the proposition or claim in question—what justifies or grounds one's belief in it. Galen Strawson wrote that an a priori argument is one of which "you can see that it is true just lying on your couch. You don't have to get up off your couch and go outside and examine the way things are in the physical world. You don't have to do any science."^[1] There are many points of view on these two types of assertion, and their relationship is one of the oldest problems in modern philosophy.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (pronounced /ˈælbərt ˈaɪnstaɪn/; German: [ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n]  ( listen); 14 March 1879–18 April 1955) was a theoretical physicist who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time, and the "greatest physicist ever", according to a 1999 poll of leading physicists^[3]. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of light by gravity and gravitational lensing, the first fluctuation dissipation theorem which explained the Brownian movement of molecules, the photon theory and wave-particle duality, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, the semiclassical version of the Schrödinger equation, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation.

Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead, OM (February 15, 1861 – December 30, 1947) was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education. He co-authored the epochal Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell.

Analytic-synthetic distinction

The analytic-synthetic distinction, (also called the analytic-synthetic dichotomy), is a conceptual distinction, used primarily in philosophy to distinguish propositions into two types: analytic propositions and synthetic propositions. Analytic propositions are those which are true simply by virtue of their meaning while synthetic propositions are not; however, philosophers have used the terms in very different ways. Furthermore, whether there is a legitimate distinction to be made has been widely debated among philosophers since Willard Van Orman Quine's critique of the distinction in his 1951 article "Two Dogmas of Empiricism".

Anomaly (physics)

In quantum physics an anomaly or quantum anomaly is the failure of a symmetry of a theory's classical action to be a symmetry of any regularization of the full quantum theory. In classical physics an anomaly is the failure of a symmetry to be restored in the limit in which the symmetry-breaking parameter goes to zero. Perhaps the first known anomaly was the dissipative anomaly in turbulence: time-reversibility remains broken (and energy dissipation rate finite) at the limit of vanishing viscosity.

Aristotle

Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings constitute a first at creating a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.

Arkansas

Arkansas ( /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ (help·info) AR-kən-saw)^[3] is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. Textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents,"^[1] where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success.^[2] John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956,^[3] defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines."^[4]

Auguste Comte

Auguste Comte (17 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, the founder of sociology and positivism. He may be regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.^[1]

Averroes

Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (Arabic: أبو الوليد محمد بن احمد بن رشد‎), better known just as Ibn Rushd (Arabic: ابن رشد‎), and in European literature as Averroes (pronounced /əˈvɛroʊ.iːz/) (1126 – December 10, 1198), was an Andalusian Muslim polymath; a master of Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics, physics and celestial mechanics. He was born in Córdoba, Al Andalus, modern day Spain, and died in Marrakesh, modern day Morocco. His school of philosophy is known as Averroism. He has been described by some^[2] as the founding father of secular thought in Western Europe and "one of the spiritual fathers of Europe,"^[3] although other scholars oppose such claims.^[4][5]

Boundary-work

In science studies, boundary-work is a term used to refer to instances in which boundaries, demarcations, or other divisions between fields of knowledge are created, advocated, attacked, or reinforced. Academic scholarship on boundary-work has emphasized that such delineations often have high stakes involved for the participants, and carries with it the implication that such boundaries are flexible and socially constructed.

C. D. Broad

C. D. Broad (full name Charlie Dunbar Broad; 30 December, 1887 - 11 March, 1971) was an English epistemologist, historian of philosophy, philosopher of science, moral philosopher, and writer on the philosophical aspects of psychical research. He was known for his thorough and dispassionate examinations of arguments in such works as The Mind and Its Place in Nature, published in 1925, Scientific Thought, published in 1930, and Examination of McTaggart's Philosophy, published in 1933.

Carl Gustav Hempel

Carl Gustav "Peter" Hempel (born January 8, 1905 in Oranienburg, Germany died November 9, 1997 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a philosopher of science and a major figure in 20th-century logical empiricism. He is especially well-known for his articulation of the Deductive-nomological model of scientific explanation, which was considered the "standard model" of scientific explanation during the 1950s and 1960's. He is also known for the Raven paradox, which highlights the problem of induction.

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist^[I] who realised that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, and published compelling supporting evidence of this in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species in which he presented his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.^[1][2] The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and much of the general public in his lifetime,^[3] but it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.^[4] In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.^[5][6]

Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced /ˈpɜrs/ purse^[1]) (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Peirce was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. It is largely his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, and semiotics (and his founding of pragmatism) that are appreciated today. In 1934, the philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce "the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician".^[2]