Historical Science, Experimental Science, and the Scientific Method
Journal Title: Filozoficzne Aspekty Genezy - Year 2011, Vol 8, Issue 0
Abstract
Many scientists believe that there is a uniform, interdisciplinary method for the practice of good science. The paradigmatic examples, however, are drawn from classical experimental science. Insofar as historical hypotheses cannot be tested in controlled laboratory settings, historical research is sometimes said to be inferior to experimental research. Using examples from diverse historical disciplines, this paper demonstrates that such claims are misguided. First, the reputed superiority of experimental research is based upon accounts of scientific methodology (Baconian inductivism or falsificationism) that are deeply flawed, both logically and as accounts of the actual practices of scientists. Second, although there are fundamental differences in methodology between experimental scientists and historical scientists, they are keyed to a pervasive feature of nature, a time asymmetry of causation. As a consequence, the claim that historical science is methodologically inferior to experimental science cannot be sustained.
Authors and Affiliations
Carol Cleland
Intelligent Design Theory and the Supernatural: The „God or Extra-Terrestrials” Reply
When proponents of Intelligent Design (ID) theory deny that their theory is religious, the minimalistic theory they have in mind (the mini-ID theory) is the claim that the irreducibly complex adaptations found in nature...
Thomas Aquinas and Evolution: A Polemic with Piotr Lichacz’s and William E. Carroll’s Theses
This paper concerns the relationship between Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine and the concept of biological evolution. It is a response to theses presented by two catholic authors (Piotr Lichacz and William E. Carroll), accordin...
Kreacjonizm po lubelsku
Recenzja książki: Piotr JAROSZYŃSKI (red.), Ewolucjonizm czy kreacjonizm, Przyszłość Cywilizacji Zachodu, Fundacja "Lubelska Szkoła Filozofii Chrześcijańskiej", Lublin 2008, s. 374.
Revisiting the God of the Gaps
Although design arguments for the existence of God are sometimes dismissed as God of the Gaps apologetics, reasons for rejecting them based on the history of science, philosophy, religion, and pragmatism are not as compe...
Odnajdywanie zamysłu w przyrodzie
Celem artykułu jest rozwianie wątpliwości dotyczących wypowiedzi papieża Jana Pawła II, w której jakoby głosił on pogląd, że Kościół Katolicki zaakceptował darwinowską teorię ewolucji. Kardynał Schönborn, odwołując się d...