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Philosophy of Science

50 lessons across 8 eras, from 600 BC to today. Tap any question to read its lesson.

  1. 600 BC – AD 150

    Era 1: Questioning nature

    1. Thales and the first explanationCan nature be explained without gods?Completed
    2. Democritus and the atomsIs believing in unseen particles science?Completed
    3. Aristotle and the four causesHow many causes does an explanation need?Completed
    4. Aristotle and scientific knowledgeHow do we get from observation to certain knowledge?Completed
    5. Ptolemy and calculating modelsCan a model work without being true?Completed
  2. 1000 – 1350

    Era 2: Faith and reason

    1. Ibn al-Haytham and the testHow is a claim put to the test?Completed
    2. Al-Ghazali and causationDoes fire really burn the cotton?Completed
    3. Ockham's razorWhy prefer the simpler explanation?Completed
  3. 1600 – 1720

    Era 3: The new method

    1. Francis Bacon and the idolsHow does our mind deceive us?Completed
    2. Galileo and the book of natureWhy is nature written in the language of mathematics?Completed
    3. Descartes and methodCan science be built by doubting everything?Completed
    4. Boyle and the experimentWho confirms the result of an experiment?Completed
    5. Newton: I frame no hypothesesCan we use a force without knowing its cause?Completed
  4. 1740 – 1910

    Era 4: The limits of reason

    1. Hume and inductionHow do we know the sun will rise tomorrow?Completed
    2. Hume and causationCan we ever see a cause?Completed
    3. Bayes and probabilityHow much should new evidence change our belief?Completed
    4. Kant and the synthetic a prioriCan we know about the world before experience?Completed
    5. Mill versus WhewellDid Kepler discover the ellipse or invent it?Completed
    6. Peirce and abductionHow do we guess an explanation in the first place?Completed
    7. Duhem and the crucial experimentCan one experiment refute a theory?Completed
    8. Poincaré and conventionAre some laws only agreements?Completed
  5. 1920 – 1960

    Era 5: The logic of science

    1. The Vienna Circle and verificationWhen does a sentence have meaning?Completed
    2. Popper and falsifiabilityWhat makes a theory scientific?Completed
    3. Fisher, Neyman and statistical testingWhen is a result more than chance?Completed
    4. Hempel and explanationIs explaining an event deriving it from a law?Completed
    5. The raven paradoxIs a white shoe evidence about ravens?Completed
    6. Goodman's grueWhy are emeralds green and not "grue"?Completed
    7. Quine and underdeterminationCan two theories fit the same data?Completed
    8. Hanson and theory-laden observationDo two observers see the same sun?Completed
  6. 1960 – 1985

    Era 6: The historical turn

    1. Kuhn and normal scienceDoes science advance by steady accumulation?Completed
    2. Kuhn and scientific revolutionsCan rival paradigms understand each other?Completed
    3. Quine and naturalized epistemologyIs the theory of knowledge itself a science?Completed
    4. Lakatos and research programmesWhen should a theory be abandoned?Completed
    5. Feyerabend against methodDoes science have a single method?Completed
    6. Sociology of science and the laboratoryHow are facts made in the laboratory?Completed
  7. 1975 – today

    Era 7: Reality and explanation

    1. Salmon, Kitcher and explanationIs explaining showing causes or unifying facts?Completed
    2. Putnam's no-miracles argumentIf theories are false, why do they work?Completed
    3. Laudan and the pessimistic inductionIf past theories were false, are today's true?Completed
    4. Van Fraassen and constructive empiricismNeed a theory be true only about the observable?Completed
    5. Hacking and interveningIf we can spray them, are they real?Completed
    6. Worrall and structural realismWhat survives when theories change?Completed
    7. Bayesian confirmationHow much does a piece of evidence support a theory?Completed
    8. Laws of natureWhy should the world obey laws?Completed
    9. Causation and interventionCan causation be read from correlation?Completed
    10. Models and idealizationWhy is a frictionless plane useful?Completed
    11. Longino and the feminist critiqueDoes objectivity come from a single scientist?Completed
    12. Science and valuesIs good science free of values?Completed
  8. 1930 – today

    Era 8: Philosophies of the sciences

    1. The measurement problemWhat happens at the moment of measurement?Completed
    2. What is a function?Is the heart's function to pump blood or to make a sound?Completed
    3. Fodor and the special sciencesWhy can't psychology be reduced to physics?Completed