HL CHAPTER 1 Induction and the Problem of Induction

CHAPTER 1 Induction and the Problem of Induction
Note:1@@@@@@@@@@Storia della scienzaw...bacone...hume...induttivismo

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We had both taken a lot of physics, so we both knew rationally that this was a pendulum and the ball would stop before it hit me
Note:MANZI METTE LA FACCIA DOVE HA RILASCIATO UN PENDOLO

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But it was still deeply counterintuitive not to flinch.
Note:I DUE SAPERI...CON LA TESTA E CON IL CORPO

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science allows us to overrule our experience
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The Origins of the Scientific Method
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Francis Bacon’s text Novum Organum,
Note:GURU

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Scholastic natural philosophy against which Bacon was reacting.
Note:REAZIONW

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They viewed any material body as comprising both an inert substratum of primary matter and a quality-bearing essence—its
Note:VISIONE SCOLASTICA.....LA NATURA DI X...LA SUA ESSENZA....MOLTEPLICITÀ DELLE ESSENZE

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There is some “essence” of the bowling ball that makes it different from the loaf of bread.
Note:ESEMPIO

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In Physics, he asked by way of example why front teeth regularly grow sharp, and back teeth broad, in a fashion that is good for an animal. He claimed that we must go beyond just the interaction of particles, because it cannot simply be coincidence
Note:I MATERI DI ARISTOTELE....TUTTO PREORDINATO AD UN FINE

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“the end, that for the sake of which a thing is done.”
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essence of the animal causes interacting particles to organize themselves differently
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Bacon’s central argument was not exactly that this was wrong, but rather that it was impractical.
Note:IRROMPE BACONE

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scientists would be more productive if they ruled questions about things like final causes to be out of bounds;
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considering such questions to be metaphysics rather than physics.
Note:NATURA ED ESSENZE

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that human life be endowed with new discoveries and powers.”
Note:LI SCOPO DELLA SCIENZA X BACONE...ERA ANCHE UN POLITICO

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nature is extraordinarily complicated as compared to human mental capacities,
Note:LA NATURA NN RIENTRA BENE IN UN PIANO.....PER QS L IDEA SCOLASTICA NN FUNZIONAVA

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The second element of his theory was his belief that humans tend to overinterpret data into unreliable patterns and therefore leap to faulty conclusions,
Note:ALTRO ELEMENTO CONTRO IL PARADIGMA SCOLASTICO

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The result was a closed intellectual system whose adherents spent their energies in ceaseless argumentation based on false premises, rather than seeking new information.
Note:ESITO SCOLASTICO

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Bacon proposed a new method (novum organum) that would start with the meticulous construction of factual knowledge as a foundation for belief
Note:NUOVO ORGANO

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He called this method induction.The
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he was expressing the viewpoint that scientists should proceed as if they are pure materialist reductionists,
Note:AS IF

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The ultimate goal of Baconian science is not philosophical truth; it is improved engineering.
Note:ESPULSIONE DELLA FILISOFIA

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Bacon had a clear understanding of the roles of what today we call basic and applied research. Although he saw the ultimate goal of science as material benefit, he believed that, paradoxically, focusing on slowly building sufficient experimental knowledge to develop general physical laws (“experiments of Light”), rather than trying to immediately solve specific practical problems (“experiments of Fruit”),
Note:SCIENZA DI BASE

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he asserted the primacy of careful experiments as the initial building blocks of scientific knowledge.
Note:L ESPERIMENTO MATERIALE

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Bacon’s degree of focus on experimentation at the expense of theorizing can be caricatured.
Note:RESTA PICO DI BACONE.....MA NN MINIMIZZIAMO

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It was not until many years later that the concept of the controlled experiment (carefully changing only one potential causal factor and observing the result) was more rigorously distinguished from nonexperimental observation than in Bacon’s somewhat impressionistic “verified, weighed, and counted” description.
Note:ESPERIMENTO E OSSERVAZIONE

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Bacon attempted to define a process of scientific experimentation and inference, but in this he failed; the detailed method he proposed has not been used by scientists in practice. He was never able to explain exactly how the induction of general physical laws from individual observations should work at an algorithmic or logical level.
Note:IL FALLIMENTO DI BACON...IL COMPITO ERA IMPOSSIBILE

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“the logic of scientific discovery.”
Note:SOLO CON POPPER SO DELINEERÀ UNA CERTA LGICA

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The Problem of Induction
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skeptical British philosopher David Hume focused on the problem of how we can generalize from a finite list of instances
Note:ARRIVA LO SCETTICONE

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An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
Note:OPERA

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“simple enumeration” is not what we’re after, that the development of cause-and-effect rules is central to practical knowledge:
Note:SOLO LE TEORIE FANNO CONOACENZA

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we can never be sure of a cause-and-effect rule developed through induction.
Note:CONCLUSIONE DEL TACCHINO

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how do we know that the connection between these chemicals and health will continue in the future?
Note:IL FUTURO È APERTO

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to the extent that my belief in a particular cause-and-effect relationship relies on induction, this belief must always remain provisional.
Note:INSICUREZZA CONGENITA

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This might seem like the kind of thing that only a philosopher with too much time on his hands could care about, and in fact, Hume was careful to ridicule the seemingly airy-fairy nature of his concern before his readers could do it for him.
Note:IL PROB DELL INDUZIONE...UN PROB SECONDARIO

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The Problem of Induction becomes a practical problem when we begin to depart from the arena in which common sense works.
Note:IL SENSO COMUNE

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The Problem of Induction can be restated usefully as the observation that there may always be hidden conditionals to any causal rule that is currently believed to be valid.
PROBLEMA INDUZIONE => VARIABILI NASCOSTE QUINE DEHUM

Sterilità degli arpedonapti

Quali sono le condizioni sociali che sollecitano lo sviluppo rigoglioso delle Scienze?

E qui ognuno dice la sua, esce di tutto e il contrario di tutto.

Ma alcune voci sono più autorevoli, si tratta di quelle voci comandate da cervelli che perlomeno conoscono a menadito la storia della scienza. Sentiamo allora Alexandre Koyrè:

"vedo tre condizioni: 1) molto tempo libero per gli uomini, 2) culto dell' astrazione e della verità e 3) prestigio sociale per chi si dedica al culto dell' astrazione e della verità. La storia ci insegna, per qualcuno potrebbe essere una sorpresa, che lo sviluppo scientifico è disconnesso dalle attività pratiche. Non sono stati gli arpedonapti egiziani, che dovevano misurare i campi della valle del Nilo, ad inventare la geometria: sono stati i Greci, i quali non avevano proprio nulla di significativo da misurare. I primi si sono fatti bastare rudimentali quanto ingegnose ricette pratiche. Del pari non sono stati i Babilonesi, che credevano fermamente nell' astrologia e nel suo vaticinio, a raffinare le leggi astronomiche, ma altri che avevano solo il gusto della conoscenza. Io so che le tre condizioni di cui sopra sono decisive, ma non so quale ambiente sociale sia più propizio per ricrearle, quindi direi che la risposta al quesito resta inevasa"

Alexandre Koyré - Filosofie e storia delle scienza - Mimesis

Interessante. Mi sembra che la diffusione della religione in tutti gli ambiti della discussione pubblica (culto della verità) e le continue sottili dispute teologiche (culto dell' astrazione), facciano della società medioevale un' incubatrice adeguata per lo sviluppo della scienza.