Why are the Sciences Empirical?

[Cooky]

"Invention" is the wrong verb. Science describes what is observable.

But once, there was no science. And then there was. But there was always empiricism.

 

[Revoltingest]

Where does imagination end and reality assert itself?

Imagination leads to greater understanding of reality.

 

[Willamena]

But once, there was no science. And then there was. But there was always empiricism.

But always, within the span of scientific assertion, there was observation.

 

[Willamena]

Imagination leads to greater understanding of reality.

It can. Science can, too.

 

[siti]

But once, there was no science. And then there was.

But that in itself was a kind of scientific discovery - a triumph of empiricism...when someone (often credited to Francis Bacon but for sure people had been doing it long before that) noted that observation and induction (in preference to rhetoric and logic) comprised the appropriate method for discerning 'truth' about the natural world. This was not an invention - it was a discovery.

 

[Cooky]

But that in itself was a kind of scientific discovery - a triumph of empiricism...when someone (often credited to Francis Bacon but for sure people had been doing it long before that) noted that observation and induction (in preference to rhetoric and logic) comprised the appropriate method for discerning 'truth' about the natural world. This was not an invention - it was a discovery.

And before it was a discovery, it began as an idea.. An *imagined* idea...

 

[Cooky]

There is a philosophy behind the scientific method.

...With empiricism, it is just a natural human experience that has existed since the concious mind began to acknowledge it's senses and surrounding environment.

 

[siti]

And before it was a discovery, it began as an idea.. An *imagined* idea...

I imagine so...and?

 

[siti]

There is a philosophy behind the scientific method.

Two - at least - empiricism and naturalism.

 

[Willamena]

And before it was a discovery, it began as an idea.. An *imagined* idea...

Not really. It always was an idea, an empirical idea.

It sparked the imagination, but that's a different thing.

 

[Willamena]

Look: there always was a time when people took the input of senses to be real. To be the truth. That's empiricism. Then, at some point, they said that we should doubt the input of senses, we should test them to make sure that we're correct. That's science.

Materialism is another beast.

 

[Willamena]

There is a philosophy behind the scientific method.

...With empiricism, it is just a natural human experience that has existed since the concious mind began to acknowledge it's senses and surrounding environment.

Empiricism is the philosophical theory that the world open to and describable by our interpretation of sensory data is adequately represented.

That's not a bad thing.

 

[Sunstone]

There is actually a fairly long history leading up to the scientific revolution and the adoption of the scientific method.

Yes.

 

[Sunstone]

Without basic materialist & empiricist assumptions you cannot have science.

I would agree with you. You could have knowledge. That is you could have "justified true beliefs", but you could not have what we know as "science". Science can be thought of as a special case or subset of justifications.

 

[Cooky]

Empiricism is the philosophical theory that the world open to and describable by our interpretation of sensory data is adequately represented.

That's not a bad thing.

Of course it's not a bad thing.

 

[Cooky]

Empiricism is the philosophical theory that the world open to and describable by our interpretation of sensory data is adequately represented.

What else is there?

 

[Cooky]

Not really. It always was an idea, an empirical idea.

It sparked the imagination, but that's a different thing.

There is no such thing as an empirical idea. Unless someone can show one.

 

[Willamena]

What else is there?

Well, empiricism's claim is that sensory and observable data was the only correct source of truth. Complex ideas were compiled of sensory data: a unicorn was the idea of a horse combined with the idea of a horn. But we do have ideas that are not related to sensory or observable data, yet still significantly shape the world: ideas such as integrity, honour, and promise. Empiricism was contrasted with rationalism, which asserts that we can know truths apart from the observed world, for instance from logic and mathematics, ethics and metaphysics, which have no foundation in the observable world. We know a bachelor to be unmarried because of definition, not from observing them living a solitary life.

 

[Willamena]

There is no such thing as an empirical idea. Unless someone can show one.

Nonsense. There is nothing we can speak of that isn't an idea.

 

[Windwalker]

Going beyond the obvious truth of that, what other reasons might there be for why the sciences are empirically oriented?

Because the most easily understood things about existence as a whole, those which are the most accessible, are an attempt to address the most basic underlying question of all existence, "Why am I?" We glorify its successes, such as they are, because they promise answers, or rather the hope of answers to our most deepest questions of our own being.

The empiric approach is like taking metaphors and making them facts. It helps the mind settle down into something tangible it can digest. "All reduces down to the testable. In this I can rest my troubled mind. LIfe is predictable, on some level." While science is wonderful, it isn't a substitute for coming to terms existentially with one's own being.

So the other reason why that is the chosen path is, the hope that tests can reveal God. It bypasses the interior path, the scarey, and dark path where one faces annihilation. "If I can make rational sense of all of this of which I am part, then I can overcome the terror of my nonbeing". It's trying to put handles on the transcendent. It tries to bring God down to earth and put it in a bottle to analyze.