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do what you love (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 14 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I used my philosophy of science classwork all the time in my engineering career.

What constitutes proof? What kinds of questions can you answer with data? When do we consider a pattern of behavior to represent the existence of some entity?

Being able to think about these kinds of questions with clarity is really helpful in diagnosing problems in large systems.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    What constitutes proof? What kinds of questions can you answer with data? When do we consider a pattern of behavior to represent the existence of some entity?

    Any recommended reading for someone who's never formally studied philosophy?

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    Karl Popper, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" is a seminal work in the modern philosophy of science. It proposes to solve the problem of induction, and his proposal of falsifiability is, to my knowledge, the most popular philosophical framework for modern scientific practice. I'd be interested in what the above commenter has to say about Popper, though, as I am not well-read outside of his work, as my focus is on the history of science.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    I'm not sure recommending Popper to someone who has never studied philosophy, and who is reading on their own, is a good idea ... I would probably start with a small intro to philosophy book like Blackburn's Think and then try to find lectures or resources that help teach Popper, rather than just diving into source material with no guidance.

    Popper is important, but I don't think he is commonly seen to have solved the problem of induction ... he made an attempt, but that's a different story.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Excellent points! And yes, that's why I said he proposed that he solved the problem of induction.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    sorry, I conflated what you said about falsifiability being the most popular framework with thinking he did solve the problem of induction, lol - I had just woken up when I responded to you, my apologies 😅

    Popper is great, also recommend Hilary Putnam's "The 'Corroboration' of Theories" on Popper. I admittedly adore Putnam, but it's a nice overview of Popper's view of induction and its problems.

    Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) and his idea of paradigm shifts is also worth mentioning here, and Kuhn comes up in Putnam's chapter, too.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Popper is considered an important historical contributor by the field, in the same way that Jacob Lister might be in surgery. Groundbreaking but their methods have been replaced.

    Jeffrey Kaplan is the best current philosophy lecturer on YouTube imo. He focuses more on theories of consciousness but covers epistemology too. Bryan Magee did a fantastic interview series called The Great Philosophers that's on YouTube.

    I would actually start with sociology of science if you want the most interesting contemporary stuff. Harry Collins is fantastic, check out his recent book on LIGO. Steven Shapin's book on the Scientific Revolution is good.

    Bruno Latour is a love-him-or-hate-him figure in science studies (I love him). "Laboratory Life" and "Science in Action" are great reads imo.

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