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Transcript of Nursing Knowledge Chapter 8 Logical positivism and mid-century philosophy of science Presented by...
Nursing Knowledge Chapter 8
Logical positivism and mid-century philosophy of science
Presented by Justin Fallin
October 25, 2014
Professor: Dr. Tomlinson
BEF 644
History and Terminology Empiricism
• Philosophical approach to learning about knowledge with a belief that everything comes from a person’s experience.
• Differs from Rationalism
• Rationalists: knowledge does not require experience, observation, or experiments.
• Empiricism: “our” knowledge of the world
• Rationalism: knowledge of things in the world
(Risjord, 2010)
Logical Positivism • Developed from empiricism.
• Formed from philosophers in the Vienna Circle: Schlick and Neurath , in Europe after the First World War (Godfrey-Smith, 2003)
• Peak of influence in the 1930s-1940s
• Positivists believed:
• All meaningful statements required verification
• If unverifiable, it is essentially useless
• As a result, it leaned toward scientific method
• Science is not observable- they wanted to prove unobservable could be meaningful
(Risjord, 2010)
Theory in Nursing
• Postulates: basic terms of a theory
• Propositions: parts of the definition of a theory arranged deductively.
• Axioms: basic propositions assumed true but not tested
• Theorems: propositions developed from axioms that can be deduced
1. Core of Theory: postulates or axioms
2. Postulates contain terms implicitly defined by postulates
3. Theorems develop from those postulates
• Euclid’s Geometry
• Axioms: first set of proofs but not proven
• Axioms proved all truths in geometry– thus, becoming theorems
• Axiom is true= theorem is true
• Is it acceptable to assume all axioms to be true?
• Positivists would say yes because of observable consequences
• Implicit Definitions
• Euclid’s definitions required prior knowledge of the terms
• All words cannot be defined because they would all reference each other
• Primitive terms are left without specific definitions to avoid this circularity
(Risjord, 2010)
Theory Structure Received View
• If knowledge comes from experience, scientific knowledge must be from observation
• To prevent such biases, positivists defined two terms:
• Observational vocabulary: objective terms such as “blue car,” “going 200 mph”
• Theoretical vocabulary: cannot be verified (observed) directly such as germs, air, wind
• Scientific theory has the following structure:
• Theoretical vocabulary
• Axioms expressed in theoretical vocabulary
• Bridge laws to relate theoretical and observational terms (needed– theory of only theoretical terms cannot be tested)
Theoretical/Experimental Law
• Scientific research goes in two directions:
• Empirical: inductively finds observable regularities
• Theoretical: speculative, uses postulates to form with theoretical terms
• Hierarchy of Theory
• Fundamental Laws: implicit definitions for fundamental concepts. (Newton’s law of motion)
• Middle-range Theories: experimental law or empirical generalizations. (apply Newton’s law to the tides)
• Ultimately, all laws can be reduced to physics but this seemed impossible as one domain cannot reduce to another.
(Risjord, 2010)
Explanation and TestingExplanation
• Empirical regularities that show a consequence of fundamental laws are “explained” phenomenon
• Per Hempel, explanation requires:
1. Event or empirical regularities to be explained (explanadum)
2. Number of general laws
3. Set of initial conditions (2 & 3 are grouped together= explanans)
• Known as the deductive-nomological conception of explanations
Testing Theory• Empiricism says all theories are
tested through observation
• Per received view, to test a theory:
• Proposition can be observed as true or false (hypothesis)
• Bridge laws are required to deduce the hypothesis
• If the theory proves false, theory is mistaken in some way
• According to Popper, theories are never true so scientists should be attempting to prove theories false through testing
(Risjord, 2010)
Conclusion• Received view became core to understanding scientific view.
• Using axioms, unobservables may be accepted to empiricists
• For positivists, scientific knowledge is the fundamental knowledge of the laws of nature
• Good theories are explanatory
• Science should produce theory and test it
• Disciplines considered basic sciences should have their own body of laws, consisting of theories and conceptual frameworks for that basic science
(Risjord, 2010)
References
• Godfrey-Smith, P. (2003). Theory and Reality. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
• Risjord, M. (2010). Nursing Knowledge. Ames, IA: Wiley-Blackwell.