HU3700: Exam 2 Fall, 2005

Answer the following questions. Read all directions and questions carefully. Illegible answers will receive no credit.

Part I. Fill-in-the-blank: For each of the following sentences, find the item in the attached list that best completes the sentence. Note that not all items in the list will be used. Some items may be used to answer more than one question. Give your answers by writing the letters corresponding to the correct answers to the questions—1. S, 2. MM, etc. Write your answers in the space provided at the end of the exam questions. (2 points each)

  1. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, a research program is ______to the degree to which it fails to lead to the discovery of new phenomena.
  2. ______(person) believed that in choosing among theories “anything goes.”
  3. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, a(n) ______includes explicitly stated laws and theories, standard ways of applying fundamental laws, recognition of certain types of measuring instrumentation as accurate and reliable, metaphysical and methodological principles, and criteria of acceptability for scientific explanations.
  4. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, a(n) ______occurs when anomalies become numerous and serious enough to call the current paradigm into question.
  5. ______is the view that theories are nothing more than useful devices for correlating and predicting the results of observations and experiments.
  6. ______enables us to calculate the updated, posterior probabilities of hypotheses in light of new evidence given the prior probabilities of those hypotheses.
  7. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, ______is structured activity directed by a single paradigm that is uncritically accepted by the vast majority of the scientific community.
  8. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, a research program is ______to the degree to which it is leading to the discovery of new phenomena.
  9. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, each research program includes a ______which stipulates that the hard core of the program is not to be abandoned or modified.
  10. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, a scientific ______occurs when the scientific community resolves a crisis by abandoning one paradigm and adopting another.
  11. According to the view known as “the ______,” scientific progress consists in part of the “steady buildup of the stock of experimental knowledge.”
  12. ______is the view that the truth of a proposition depends entirely on what the world is really like and not whether people believe it.
  13. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, the ______of a research program includes auxiliary assumptions, assumptions underlying the description of initial conditions, and observations statements that can be modified without abandoning the program.
  14. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, the ______of a research program consists of general rules for modifying its protective belt.
  15. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, a(n) ______is a puzzle that resists solution within the current paradigm.
  16. According to the ______view of scientific laws, laws only describe regularities among phenomena.
  17. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, competing paradigms are ______with each other.
  18. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, ______is disorganized and unstructured activity characterized by total disagreement and constant debate over fundamentals.
  19. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, the ______of a research program contains the stipulation that general hypotheses that cannot be modified without abandoning the program.
  20. ______is the view that the truth of a proposition depends at least in part on whether people believe it.

Part II. Answer two questions from Set A and one question from Set B below (for a total of 3 questions). Indicate clearly which questions you are answering. Make your answers concise but complete. Avoid irrelevant discussion. Say exactly what you mean. Do not expect the grader to interpret your writing or to “read between the lines.” Write your answers on separate sheets of paper—not on the test questions. (20 points each)

Set A

  1. What does Kuhn mean when he says that competing paradigms are “incommensurable”? What reasons does Kuhn give for claiming that competing paradigms are incommensurable? Be specific.
  2. Discuss whether Lakatos is an absolutist or a relativist in his views about scientific change. What are his views on scientific progress? What does scientific progress consist of, according to Lakatos? Explain why there is tension between his views about evaluating research programs and his views about rationality in science? Be specific.
  3. In what ways is Feyerabend’s philosophy of science “anarchistic”? On what grounds does Feyerabend argue that there is no universal scientific method? Why does he devote so much attention to Galileo and his role in the Copernican revolution? Be specific.
  4. What exactly is scientific realism? State and explain thoroughly one of the main considerations in favor of scientific realism? What exactly is scientific antirealism? State and explain thoroughly one of the main considerations in favor of scientific anti-realism? Be specific.

Set B

  1. What essentially is the Bayesian approach to the philosophy of science? What role does Bayes’s theorem play in that approach? What is the main difference between objective and subjective Bayesianism?
  2. What precisely is “the new experimentalism”? In what ways is it a departure from other approaches in the philosophy of science? What are its claims about the nature of progress in science? About the respective roles of experiment and theory in science? About the theory-dependence of experimental results?

Below is the list of terms for Part I. Note that the items are in alphabetical order.

A.  absolutism

B.  accidental regularity

C.  ad hoc hypothesis

D.  anarchism

E.  anomaly

F.  anti-realism, global

G.  anti-realism, scientific

H.  “anything goes”

I.  Bayes’s theorem

J.  Bayesianism

K.  conditional probability

L.  conjectural realism

M.  conservation of energy

N.  consistency condition

O.  counterfactual

P.  crisis

Q.  cumulative

R.  degenerating

S.  degree of belief

T.  disposition

U.  disturbing influence

V.  experimental knowledge

W.  experimental law

X.  faith

Y.  Feyerabend, Paul

Z.  Galileo

AA.  Gestalt switch

BB.  hard core

CC.  high-level theory

DD.  idealization

EE.  incommensurable

FF.  instrumentalism

GG.  irradiation hypothesis

HH.  Kuhn, Thomas

II.  Lakatos, Imre

JJ.  large-scale theory

KK.  lawlike regularity

LL.  negative heuristic

MM.  new experimentalism

NN.  normal science

OO.  objective Bayesianism

PP.  paradigm

QQ.  paradigm shift

RR.  persuasion

SS.  positive heuristic

TT.  posterior probability

UU.  pre-science

VV.  prior probability

WW. progress, scientific

XX.  progressing

YY.  protective belt

ZZ.  rational

AAA.  realism, scientific

BBB.  regularity

CCC.  regularity view

(conditional

form)

DDD.  relativism

EEE.  religious conversion

FFF.  research program

GGG.  revolution

HHH.  scientific community

III.  scientific method

JJJ.  structural realism

KKK.  structures, theories as

LLL.  subjective Bayesianism

MMM.  telescopic observation

NNN.  thermo-

dynamics

OOO.  truth

PPP.  unrepresen-tative realism

QQQ.  updated probability

Name ______

Part I Answers:

1. 6. 11. 16.

2. 7. 12. 17.

3. 8. 13. 18.

4. 9. 14. 19.

5. 10. 15. 20.