HU3700: Exam 2
Fall, 2005
Answer the following questions. Read all directions and questions carefully. Illegible
answers will receive no credit.
Part I. Fill-in-the-blank: For each of the following sentences, find the item in the
attached list that best completes the sentence. Note that not all items in the list will be
used. Some items may be used to answer more than one question. Give your answers by
writing the letters corresponding to the correct answers to the questions—1. S, 2. MM,
etc. Write your answers in the space provided at the end of the exam questions. (2 points
each)
1. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, a research program is ________ to the degree to
which it fails to lead to the discovery of new phenomena.
2. ________ (person) believed that in choosing among theories “anything goes.”
3. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, a(n) ________ includes explicitly stated laws and
theories, standard ways of applying fundamental laws, recognition of certain types of
measuring instrumentation as accurate and reliable, metaphysical and methodological
principles, and criteria of acceptability for scientific explanations.
4. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, a(n) ________ occurs when anomalies become
numerous and serious enough to call the current paradigm into question.
5. ________ is the view that theories are nothing more than useful devices for
correlating and predicting the results of observations and experiments.
6. ________ enables us to calculate the updated, posterior probabilities of hypotheses in
light of new evidence given the prior probabilities of those hypotheses.
7. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, ________ is structured activity directed by a single
paradigm that is uncritically accepted by the vast majority of the scientific
community.
8. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, a research program is ________ to the degree to
which it is leading to the discovery of new phenomena.
9. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, each research program includes a ________
which stipulates that the hard core of the program is not to be abandoned or modified.
10. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, a scientific ________ occurs when the scientific
community resolves a crisis by abandoning one paradigm and adopting another.
11. According to the view known as “the ________,” scientific progress consists in part
of the “steady buildup of the stock of experimental knowledge.”
12. ________ is the view that the truth of a proposition depends entirely on what the
world is really like and not whether people believe it.
13. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, the ________ of a research program includes
auxiliary assumptions, assumptions underlying the description of initial conditions,
and observations statements that can be modified without abandoning the program.
14. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, the ________ of a research program consists of
general rules for modifying its protective belt.
15. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, a(n) ________ is a puzzle that resists solution
within the current paradigm.
16. According to the ________ view of scientific laws, laws only describe regularities
among phenomena.
17. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, competing paradigms are ________ with each
other.
18. In Kuhn’s philosophy of science, ________ is disorganized and unstructured activity
characterized by total disagreement and constant debate over fundamentals.
19. In Lakatos’s philosophy of science, the ________ of a research program contains the
stipulation that general hypotheses that cannot be modified without abandoning the
program.
20. ________ is the view that the truth of a proposition depends at least in part on
whether people believe it.
Part II. Answer two questions from Set A and one question from Set B below (for a total
of 3 questions). Indicate clearly which questions you are answering. Make your answers
concise but complete. Avoid irrelevant discussion. Say exactly what you mean. Do not
expect the grader to interpret your writing or to “read between the lines.” Write your
answers on separate sheets of paper—not on the test questions. (20 points each)
Set A
1. What does Kuhn mean when he says that competing paradigms are
“incommensurable”? What reasons does Kuhn give for claiming that competing
paradigms are incommensurable? Be specific.
2. Discuss whether Lakatos is an absolutist or a relativist in his views about scientific
change. What are his views on scientific progress? What does scientific progress
consist of, according to Lakatos? Explain why there is tension between his views
about evaluating research programs and his views about rationality in science? Be
specific.
3. In what ways is Feyerabend’s philosophy of science “anarchistic”? On what grounds
does Feyerabend argue that there is no universal scientific method? Why does he
devote so much attention to Galileo and his role in the Copernican revolution? Be
specific.
4. What exactly is scientific realism? State and explain thoroughly one of the main
considerations in favor of scientific realism? What exactly is scientific antirealism?
State and explain thoroughly one of the main considerations in favor of scientific
anti-realism? Be specific.
Set B
5. What essentially is the Bayesian approach to the philosophy of science? What role
does Bayes’s theorem play in that approach? What is the main difference between
objective and subjective Bayesianism?
6. What precisely is “the new experimentalism”? In what ways is it a departure from
other approaches in the philosophy of science? What are its claims about the nature of
progress in science? About the respective roles of experiment and theory in science?
About the theory-dependence of experimental results?
Below is the list of terms for Part I. Note that the items are in alphabetical order.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
absolutism
accidental regularity
ad hoc hypothesis
anarchism
anomaly
anti-realism, global
anti-realism,
scientific
H. “anything goes”
I. Bayes’s theorem
J. Bayesianism
K. conditional
probability
L. conjectural realism
M. conservation of
energy
N. consistency
condition
O. counterfactual
P. crisis
Q. cumulative
R. degenerating
S. degree of belief
T. disposition
U. disturbing influence
V. experimental
knowledge
W. experimental law
X. faith
Y. Feyerabend, Paul
Z. Galileo
AA. Gestalt switch
BB. hard core
CC. high-level theory
DD. idealization
EE. incommensurable
FF. instrumentalism
GG. irradiation
hypothesis
HH. Kuhn, Thomas
II. Lakatos, Imre
JJ. large-scale theory
KK. lawlike regularity
LL. negative heuristic
MM. new
experimentalism
NN. normal science
OO. objective
Bayesianism
PP. paradigm
QQ. paradigm shift
RR. persuasion
SS. positive heuristic
TT. posterior
probability
UU. pre-science
VV. prior probability
WW. progress, scientific
XX. progressing
YY. protective belt
ZZ.
AAA.
rational
realism,
scientific
BBB.
regularity
CCC. regularity view
(conditional
form)
DDD. relativism
EEE.
religious
conversion
FFF.
research program
GGG. revolution
HHH. scientific
community
III.
scientific method
JJJ.
structural realism
KKK. structures,
theories as
LLL.
subjective
Bayesianism
MMM. telescopic
observation
NNN. thermodynamics
OOO. truth
PPP.
unrepresen-tative
realism
QQQ. updated
probability
Name _______________________________________
Part I Answers:
1.
6.
11.
16.
2.
7.
12.
17.
3.
8.
13.
18.
4.
9.
14.
19.
5.
10.
15.
20.