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Jan 1, 1267
Roger Bacon (c. 1220 - c. 1292)
Roger Bacon was an English philosopher and a Franciscan friar who pioneered the experimental method of science in the 13th century. What makes this so notable is that the experimental (empirical) method did not take shape until the 16th century. Bacon thought that science should be based off of one's own observations and experiments, rather than rely solely on scholastic authority, such as Aristotle (Hochberg, pp. 313-314). -
Jan 1, 1267
Roger Bacon (c. 1220 - c. 1292)
Within his Opus Majus, Roger Bacon expounds on scientific topics such as mathematics and optics, but his philosophy is the most intriguing aspect of his work. Very little is known of this simple friar who may be considered the Father of the Scientific Method. Hochberg, H. (1953). The Empirical Philosophy of Roger and Francis Bacon. Philosophy of Science, 20(4), 313-326. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/185035 -
Jan 1, 1267
Roger Bacon (c. 1220 - c. 1292)
While this approach to science is widely accepted in our modern age, it was quite scandalous for Bacon to promote this in his time, almost heretical. While still remaining loyal to the Church and metaphysics, Bacon proposed that there should be a methodical approach towards science, based on observations and experiments (Hochberg, p. 314). This philosophy of science can be found within his writings, among them his famous Opus Majus, written in 1267. -
Ernst Mach (February 18, 1838 - February 19, 1916)
According to Paul Pojman, “Ernst Mach bridged the gap between science and philosophy and thus, is considered to be a founder of the philosophy of science” (par 3). Mach possessed the mind of an empiricist and had an influence on a group of philosophers called the Vienna Circle, who gave birth to a philosophy known as logical positivism. This perspective that Mach and other positivists held is the belief that the only things that mattered were those that could be verified with empirical evidence. -
Ernst Mach (February 18, 1838 - February 19, 1916)
Some of Mach’s contributions to philosophy of science can be found in his book The Science of Mechanics (1883). Within this profound text he illustrates the history of science and expounds on what is the purpose of science. One interesting philosophical view of science that Mach penned was the economy of science. This economy of science notion can best be explained with a positivist tone by Paul Pojman, -
Ernst Mach (February 18, 1838 - February 19, 1916)
“The purpose of science is to give the most economical description of nature as possible, because science is to provide conceptions which can help us better orient ourselves to our world, and if science is uneconomical then it is useless in this regard” (4.4). Pojman, Paul, "Ernst Mach", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2011/entries/ernst-mach/. -
Thomas Kuhn (July 18, 1922 - June 17, 1996)
Thomas Kuhn is considered to be one of the most influential philosophers of all time. The two concepts he brings to the table of philosophy of science are found within his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which he wrote in 1962. The first of these concepts is that of the paradigm shift. Thomas Kuhn regarded science in two ways, Normal science and Revolutionary science. Normal science is the science that is performed within the scope of its current paradigm. -
Thomas Kuhn (July 18, 1922 - June 17, 1996)
Revolutionary science is that science that goes against the current paradigm and brings scientists into a new world, so to speak. In other words, the paradigm shifts. The second concept that Kuhn brings with him is the concept of Incommensurability. Putting it very briefly, incommensurability states that two paradigms from different periods of time cannot be compared to each other, due to a lack of equivalency in language and method. -
Thomas Kuhn (July 18, 1922 - June 17, 1996)
For Kuhn, it is wrong to dismiss the science of the past and unfair to say that the current science is better than its predecessor. With these two concepts, Thomas Kuhn shook the world of philosophy and his contributions are still under debate today. Bird, Alexander, "Thomas Kuhn", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2013 Edition),
Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/thomas-kuhn/. -
Bas van Fraassen (April 5, 1941 - present)
Bas van Fraassen is most famously known for his coining of the term constructive empiricism, from his book The Scientific Image, written in 1980. Constructive empiricism is a type of scientific anti-realism, a debate between philosophers that still continues to this day. Constructive empiricism boils down to the belief that “science aims at truth about observable aspects of the world, but that science does not aim at truth about unobservable aspects” (Monton, 1.1). -
Bas van Fraassen (April 5, 1941 - present)
Examples of unobservable aspects or entities are electrons or genes. These two examples are accepted in many scientific theories but have never been actually observed by scientists. Van Fraassen’s constructive empiricism states that genes and electrons are empirically adequate in science but are not truths. With constructive empiricism, van Fraassen contributes to the timeless, ontological question, what is reality? -
Bas van Fraassen (April 5, 1941 - present)
Monton, Bradley and Mohler, Chad, "Constructive Empiricism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/
sum2017/entries/constructive-empiricism/>.
