¶ … Science
Philosophy Inherent in Science
Explanation in Science
This summary was a review of Carl G. Hempel's "Explanation In Science," which was reprinted from "Scientific Knowledge" and was edited by Janet A. Kovoany. Carl Hempel was well-known for his scientific explanation concept which has become the foundaton of many modern day philosophical discussions on the purpose and logic of science. Hempel's work was insightful and it was founded on the basis that man uses science to continually improve his current situation or 'strategic position' by either prediciting or controlling events and things around us. Hempel professed that we as a species are impelled to satisfy an inner curiosity and need to explain all that is around us and all that is unexplainable. In my researching Carl Hempel I discovered that his peers saw him as a man who was on the level of Socrates and his true genious can has been demonstrated in his work to develop the Deductive-Nomological (DN) model. Hempel studied at the prestigious Realgymnasium in Berlin, Germany and also attended the University of Gottingen. He taught at Jerusalem, Pittsburgh, Berkley, Yale and Princeton and consistently produced philosophical and scientific papers and other books. Hempel and his friend Paul Oppenheim published many books and papers. Hempel published his "Aspects of scientific explanation" in 1965. Unfortunately, Carl Hempel died in Princeton, New Jersey on November 9, 1997. (Hempel, 1998)
The first argument is that Hempel discussed two basic types of scientific explanation: Deductive and Nomological. Hempel and Oppenheim felt that a scientific explanation of a fact was considered a deduction of a statement called the explanandum which actually describes the fact that we would need to explain. They also defined a premises or explanans which are scientific laws or the initial condition of an experiment. Hempel's theory of science was that for an explanation to be acceptable, the explans must be true. This was Hempel's deductive-nomological explanation. "A good many scientific explanations can be regarded as deductive-nomological in character." (Hempel, 1965)
The second argument is that Hempel theorized that a deductive-nomological model means that an explanation of a fact can be reduced to a logical relationship between statements. In other words, 'the explanandum is a consequence of the explanans' which has become a basic tenet in the modern philosophy of logical positivism. Hempel's explanations need scientific laws or facts.
Hempel theorized that there are two types of laws. The first type is a law which is a universal constant in science such as the law of gravity. These laws are based on the fact that they have not yet been proven wrong and are universally accepted as true all of the time. The second law type would be a statistical probability or a Probabilistic explanation. This type of law can be a statistical probability that can be proven; Hempel used the concept of getting haw fever to explain this type of law. When someone has hay fever, statically it is assumed that is what it is but technically the germs could be a mixture of anything. Yet, we still consider the symptoms as hay fever. Clearly, this explanans does not deductively imply the explanandum; "John Doe's hay fever attack subsided; the truth of the explanans makes the truth of the explanandum not certain, but only more or less likely, or perhaps, practically certain." (Hempel, 1965)
In conclusion, this summary was a review of Carl G. Hempel's "Explanation In Science." Carl Hempel was a well-known scientific philosopher known for his scientific explanation concept. Hempel's work has a foundation that man uses science to continually improve his current situation or 'strategic position.' Hempel beklieved that man has an inner curiosity and this entails that we must try to explain eveything around us. Hempel's Deductive-Nomological (DN) model is his way of explaining how we use science to meet that inner need.
Understanding the Cosmos
Introduction
This summary was a review of Bertrand Russell's "Understanding the Cosmos," out of "My Present View of the World." Bertrand Russell was a popular philosopher, logician, and political activist out of England. Bertrand Russell was born in 1872 and died in 1970 and was considered one of the twentieth century's most important liberal thinkers. He was an avid Idealist who converted to full time philosopher that tried to utilize and understand stress mathematics, logic, and sense related experience.
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