Philosphy Exam 1 Pitt

1) .

A claim that challenges the idea that science is rooted in facts is that empirical data is dependent on the presumed theories. Empirical data is obtained from an experiment. The knowledge needed for the experimental set up to obtain this data is a prior theory. However, a theory is an idea that is suggested or presented to explain facts but is not known or proven to be true. This presents a problem. If empirical data is found using theories, which may or may not be true, then how can there be any certain ground for the basis of accepting the data as factual? An example that expresses this problem is Heinrich Hertz’s series of experiments involving cathode rays. His experimental data allocated the conclusion that cathode rays are not beams of charged particles. However, years later J.J. Thomas was able to conduct experiments that actually proved cathode rays are beams of charged particles, which is in agreement with our current scientific understanding. This shows that increased understanding and improving technology allowed for the observation of different experimental results, leading to different conclusions on a scientific theory. Experimental data is at the whim of the current theory, and this data is the factual foundation on which science stands. The discrediting of the once relevant data by theories is what creates the threat of circularity. The threat of circularity stems from the reasoning that theories are used to determine the adequacy of an experimental data, but this data is also used as evidence for the validity of a theory. This circularity threat means experimental results cannot be used as evidence to prove or disprove opposing theories. There have been two ways suggested to oppose this threat. The first one is that the presumed theory used to judge the adequacy of an experiment is not identical to the tested theory. However, the presumed theories may be incorrect, leading to a poorly designed experiment, concluding incorrect...