Week 5 Class Notes - October 8, 2002

Week 5 Class Notes - October 8, 2002

Agenda

Announcements

Q & A Readings last week

Readings this week: Keller; Harris; Richardson; Brantenberg; Harding; Hacking; Honderich

1. Review

If you recall last week we began a lively discussion on Received View.

and the writings of Suppe .

a. 1500-1700: Descartes' method of doubt

1. determinism: cause and effect

2. quantifiability

3. continuity

4. impersonality

Received view cannot be understood unless discussed within the context of logical positivism. This movement, of German origins, represented the change occurring in different established schools of the time. In the mid to last 1800s German science was dominated by mechanistic materialism. - a blend of positivism, ,materialism and mechanism. The world is viewed as firmly based on empirical inquiry.

b. 1850-1880: Mechanistic Materialism: laws govern life

By the end of that century this philosophy began to fade in the shadow of advances in physiology and psychology, which cast doubt on the external world, and the ability of scientific theory to adequately describe the world.

c. Neo-Kantian thinking. Scientific knowledge is not relativistic - can't deal with new physics. Here science is concerned to discover the general forms or structures of sensations. Neo-kantian thinking purports that there is no place for a priori elements in science.

With gradual acceptance of the new physics, a philosophical crisis occurred. Perhaps a new philosophy would need to be coined.

d. Neo-positivism: a statement must be verifiable ->appreciate our sensation descriptions, but doesn't account for fitting experiences together -> received view.

The Vienna circle came to accept notions as put forth by Bertrand Russell's Principles of Mathematics: all math can be done in terms of logic. The Vienna circle interpreted this as that all mathematical statements of scientific laws and also the definitions of theoretical terms could be given in terms of mathematical logic. This vision of preciously held philosophies resulted in the original version of the Received View:

Definitions: a scientific theory is to be axiomatized in mathematical logic: Three sorts of terms are logical and mathematical; theoretical; and observation terms. The axioms of the theory are formulations of scientific laws and specify relationships holding between the theoretical terms.

As discussed last week, in part II of Suppe (16-27) he does a nice job with Correspondence Rules. Scientific notations of this language are noted. TC is set of theoretical laws and C is the correspondence rules.

Correspondence Rules:

1. Define the terms

2. Cognitive significance - connected using phenomenal language and verification (must link object with theory), logically and mathematically

3. Experiential procedure

Last week I gave the example of an explanation of a bruise.

Vo = Vt

Vo Observational Terms	Vt Theoreotical Vocabulary
Swelling	Hematoma
Discoloration
Pain

First View: To be science, 5 conditions had to be met. Then skepticism:

Hx = (t) (Sxt 0x) Not always true: For example just because a glass is not struck does not mean it is not fragile. The first view was an account of theories that attached little importance to the theoretical apparatus (TC). Its function was to introduce mathematics into science. There could well be a realist and an instrumentalist view.

In the final view theories are construed realistically as describing systems of nonobservables that related to incompletely specifiable ways to their observable manifestations. So, the theoretical apparatus is central to the analysis and the emphasis is on how the theoretical apparatus connects with phenomena.

Final View:

Realists	Instrumentalists
Allow observables	Do not allow observables

Activity: Break up into pairs: define Cartesian dualism, material mechanism, realism, and instrumentalism, Q How do we use these definitions in our nursing science?

Remember ontology, epistemology and methodology for example

Historically Important Notes and Notables

1. Carnap: Brought the Received view from Europe to Chicago.

2.Received View (aka logical positivism/logical empiricalism/positivism) includes:

a. statement or sense data

b. relationships between sense data and theory

c. true statements based on experience (a posteriori)

d. Historical and sociocultural values, not part of science

e. Deductive structure: propositions can be formalized (symbolic/axiomatic)

f. Explanation is by covering law with ancillary premises

g. Observation terms distinguished from theoretical terms

h. Correspondence rules are basic, linking theory and observations

i. Single method

2. Remember last week I said the controversy still rages: many articles depict arguments for and against the received view. This week the readings are mainly feminist philosophy.

Feminist views present their concepts of person or of human nature by negation rather than by affirmation. Whether an opponent or proponent of the "women's liberation" movement, different meanings are attributed to the same words. For example, feminists Friedan and Ti-Grace Atkinson define woman as the oppressed class, while antifeminists Decter, Vilar, describe person in terms of functionality or conforming to stereotypes. In general definitions of human nature are broad end inclusive enough o include both sexes.

Activity: Organize a group of feminist research priorities within your specialty of nursing. Q. Are these pro - or con- received view? Q. is feminism an ideology (nature of ideas) or philosophy (nature of reality)?

Remember ontology, epistemology and methodology for example