Philosophy of Science Commons^™

Science’S Harmful Power, Rochelle Thomas

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

The focus of this thesis is to address and acknowledge issues identifying how applied science’s progressive impact can harm people in any society. The advancement of scientific technology can cause detrimental results to the general public. A few examples are dropping of the atomic bomb; prescription medications dispensed to patients before adequate testing studies have been completed; and scientific fraud. The scientific community promotes the scientist based on their research without thoroughly testing the theory or discovery. The scientist will go to extreme lengths to achieve specific results can cause damaging effects on society. Scientists can falsely influence society and …

Causal Explanation Of Human Behavior In The Social Sciences, Maria R. Zavada

Department of Philosophy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The social sciences have something to offer our understanding of human behavior. However, the social sciences have been subjected to a great deal of criticism, both internally and externally. Cultural anthropology provides a microcosm of the problems within the social sciences and serves as an apt case study. There are many problems with the social sciences, some as fundamental as whether or not the social sciences are indeed sciences, and others that address specific issues with goals, methods, and data collection.

Using anthropology as a case study, I articulate the connection between the methodological problems in anthropology and the philosophical …

Transformational Effects Of Museum Exhibits Upon Their Patrons: The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cassandra Caruso-Woolard

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Fine-Tuning Of Nomic Behavior In Multiverse Scenarios, Max Lewis Edward Andrews

Masters Theses

The multiverse hypothesis (the view that there is not just one world or universe in existence, bur rather that there are many) is the leading alternative to the competing fine-tuning hypothesis (the laws of physics and constants are fine-tuned for the existence of life). The multiverse dispels many aspects of the fine-tuning argument by suggesting that there are different initial conditions in each universe, varying constants of physics, and the laws of nature lose their known arbitrary values; thus, making the previous single-universe argument from fine- tuning incredibly weak. The position that will be advocated will be that a form …

Everything Is Flat: The Transcendence Of The One In Neoplatonic Ontology, Joshua Packwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation research addresses the relationship between the One and everything else in Neoplatonic metaphysics. Plato is vague in describing this distinction and thus much of late antiquity attempts to fill in the gaps, as it were. The potential difficulty, however, is that the hierarchy of existence in late antiquity is susceptible to being understood as postulating a being that is "beyond being." To avoid this difficulty, I propose an interpretation of Dionysius the Areopagite to show that being is, by definition, intelligible and thus finite and limited. Since the first principle is that which is infinite it therefore cannot …

Removing The Classical Landmark: Assessing An Epistemology Governed By Methodological Naturalism, Kegan Shaw

Masters Theses

This paper proposes to assess the naturalist project in epistemology with an eye towards exposing the project as deficient for serving as a robust epistemological project. Epistemologists treasure a certain family of questions and burden themselves with a number of specific concerns the most important of which, I think, cannot be answered by the epistemological naturalist. Ignoring these questions, I will argue, essentially amounts to a dismissal of the principle tension that primarily motivates and properly guides epistemological theorizing. This tension is the familiar appearance vs. reality distinction and characterizes what I am calling the classical landmark or boundary-stone for …

The Untenability Of A Priori Prior Probabilities In Objective Bayesian Conditionalization, C.S. Arledge

Senior Honors Theses

The problem of theory confirmation has been an issue in the philosophy of science for decades. Many valiant attempts have been made to formulate a generally accepted criterion for determining the validity of a scientific theory. Bayesian probability theory has been utilized in numerous attempts to examine the epistemic nature of theory confirmation and Jonathan Weisberg offers a formulation of Bayesian Conditionalization that he believes to be both objective and successful.

In this paper I intend to show the defects in Weisberg’s theory of objective Bayesian confirmation by utilizing the arguments of both W.V. Quine and Bas van Fraassen to …

Attitudes Toward Science (Ats): An Examination Of Scientists' And Native Americans' Cultural Values And Ats And Their Effect On Action Priorities, Adam T. Murry

Dissertations and Theses

Science has been identified as a crucial element in the competitiveness and sustainability of America in the global economy. American citizens, especially minority populations, however, are not pursuing science education or careers. Past research has implicated `attitudes toward science' as an important factor in the public's participation in science. I applied Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior to attitudes toward science to predict science-related sustainability-action intentions and evaluated whether scientists and Native Americans differed in their general attitudes toward science, cultural values, and specific beliefs about science. Analyses revealed that positive attitude toward science and the cultural value of individualism …

From Cells To Cell Theory: What Would Kuhn Say?, Laura Kurjanowicz

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

Cells as we know them today were discovered in the 1600s by Robert Hooke. A couple hundred years later, scientists came to a final conclusion about how cells arose. The theory of spontaneous generation of life was abandoned in favor of cell theory, the idea that all cells come from preexisting cells. Louis Pasteur was an important thinker and experimentalist in this transition. Furthermore, the implications of this transition were far reaching and can even be seen today with the constant use of HeLa cells in scientific research. But what would Thomas Kuhn, philosopher of science, have to say about …

The Degeneration Of The Human Mind: An Analysis Of Alzheimer’S Disease, A Kuhnian Perspective, Genevieve Ilg

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

In 1906, a German physician, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, specifically identified a collection of brain cell abnormalities (and the formation of plaque in the brain) as a disease, which forever changed the way scientists view degenerative cognitive disorders. Today, this brain disease bears his name, and is one of the most common diseases among the aging population. The discovery of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) can be seen as a revolutionary, paradigmatic shift in regards to scientific discovery from a Kuhnian perspective. In that vein, the discovery presents philosophical implications for the notion of personhood and how those suffering from AD are treated …

A Kuhnian Analysis Of Willis, Katie Meloro

Spring 2013, Kuhn's Philosophy of Science

Seventeenth century scientist Thomas Willis dedicated his research to understanding the complexities of the human brain. He made several crucial discoveries about the brain's functional organization and in the process contradicted Rene Descartes' pineal theory regarding the location of the soul. Willis' writings were analyzed and modified by renowned students like John Locke, but his emphasis on empirical research and his creation of the four pillars of neurology has led to Willis' continuing influence on the practices of modern science. This paper analyzes the work of Willis from a Kuhnian perspective of scientific history.

The Stories Of Environmental Ethicists In Word And Image, Camille Robins

Scripps Senior Theses

The Stories of Environmental Ethicists in Word and Image captures the spirit of three local people: John B. Cobb, Jr., Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Dean Freudenberger. As teachers, writers, activists, and members of the progressive retirement community Pilgrim Place, they’ve had a significant influence on the global environmental movement. The photographs and small essays in this project highlight who they are and what they’ve done, and how they continue to shape contemporary intellectual discourse. An analysis of how portrait photographers use images to tell stories and how they incorporate text in their photographic collections to create fuller, more robust pictures …

Science And Religion Take Practice: Engaging Science As Culture, James K.A. Smith

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

This article argues that current paradigms in the theology/science conversation effectively treat “science” as if it were equivalent to “nature”—with detrimental effects for the encounter between Christian theology and the natural sciences. In contrast, I suggest that recognizing science as culture has important implications for reconfiguring the theology/science dialogue.

Teaching The Complex Numbers: What History And Philosophy Of Mathematics Suggest, Emily R. Grosholz

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The narrative about the nineteenth century favored by many philosophers of mathematics strongly influenced by either logic or algebra, is that geometric intuition led real and complex analysis astray until Cauchy and Kronecker in one sense and Dedekind in another guided mathematicians out of the labyrinth through the arithmetization of analysis. Yet the use of geometry in most cases in nineteenth century mathematics was not misleading and was often key to important developments. Thus the geometrization of complex numbers was essential to their acceptance and to the development of complex analysis; geometry provided the canonical examples that led to the …

Uv-Visible Microscope Spectrophotometric Polarization And Dichroism With Increased Discrimination Power In Forensic Analysis, Dale Kevin Purcell

All Open Access Legacy Dissertations and Capstone Projects

Microanalysis of transfer (Trace) evidence is the application of a microscope and microscopical techniques for the collection, observation, documentation, examination, identification, and discrimination of micrometer sized particles or domains. Microscope spectrophotometry is the union of microscopy and spectroscopy for microanalysis. Analytical microspectroscopy is the science of studying the emission, reflection, transmission, and absorption of electromagnetic radiation to determine the structure or chemical composition of microscopic-size materials. Microscope spectrophotometry instrument designs have evolved from monochromatic illumination which transmitted through the microscope and sample and then is detected by a photometer detector (photomultiplier tube) to systems in which broad-band (white light) illumination …

A New Foundation For The Propensity Interpretation Of Fitness, Charles H. Pence, Grant Ramsey

Faculty Publications

The propensity interpretation of fitness (PIF) is commonly taken to be subject to a set of simple counterexamples. We argue that three of the most important of these are not counterexamples to the PIF itself, but only to the traditional mathematical model of this propensity: fitness as expected number of offspring. They fail to demonstrate that a new mathematical model of the PIF could not succeed where this older model fails. We then propose a new formalization of the PIF that avoids these (and other) counterexamples. By producing a counterexample-free model of the PIF, we call into question one of …

Staffan Müller-Wille And Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, A Cultural History Of Heredity, Charles H. Pence

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transhumanism And Society: The Social Debate Over Human Enhancement, Stephen J. Lilley

Sociology Faculty Publications

This book provides an introductory overview to the social debate over enhancement technologies with an overview of the transhumanists' call to bypass human nature and conservationists' argument in defense of it. The author present this controversy as it unfolds in the contest between transhumanists proponents and conservationists, who push back with an argument to conserve human nature and to ban enhancement technologies.

Readers are informed about the discussion over humanism, the tension between science and religion, and the interpretation of socio-technological revolutions; and are invited to make up their own mind about one of the most challenging topics concerning the …

On Love In The Realm Of Science, Vuk Uskoković

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

In the first half of 2009 I organized a series of talks at University of California, San Francisco. The series was dedicated to observing science from a wider perspective and figuring out where its trains and we as scientists in it are heading to. The final presentation in the series I envisaged as the one drawing threads between love and science. However, my aim was neither for that particular talk to be the one of explaining sensations of love using scientific language nor to be based on pastoral and pathetic eruptions of love about science. What I had in mind …

Women's Use Of Violence: An Ecological Systems Model, Sara Byczek

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

What Galileo's Telescope Can't See, James K.A. Smith

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Ethics, Law, And The Science Of Fish Welfare, Colin Allen

Between the Species

Fish farming is one of the fastest growing sectors of agriculture, attracting considerable attention to the question of whether existing farming regulations and animal welfare laws are adequate to deal with the expanding role of fish in feeding humans. The role of fish as model organisms in scientific research is also expanding -- a majority of research biology departments now keep zebrafish for the purposes of genome biology, and they are used widely used for basic neuroscience research. However, due to their diversity and distance from mammalian biology, fish pose difficult questions for the application of legal and ethical principles …

Defending The Multiple Realization Argument Against The Identity Theory, David Barrett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A classic argument in the philosophy of mind is that the identity theory is false because mental state types are multiply realized in brain state types. In this dissertation I provide a detailed elaboration of the argument and a defense of it against a few of its prominent contemporary critics. Finally I offer empirical evidence from inter-species differences in humans and monkeys, and also from a case of extensive neural plasticity, which shows that mental state types are multiply realized in brain state types.

The Mathematical Cultures Network Project, Brendan P. Larvor

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council has agreed to fund a series of three meetings with associated publications on mathematical cultures. This note describes the project.

The Ethics Of Vaginal Birth After Cesarean, Sonya Charles

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

The decline in providers and facilities that will allow a trial of labor after cesarean forces many women to choose a repeat cesarean. The choice is frequently not much of a choice, however, since the full range of options are often not on the table. This limited 'choice' violates obstetricians' obligations both to respect patients' autonomy and to offer them good care. There has been a vigorous but so far not very fruitful debate in the last few years about the lack of access to a trial of labor after cesarean. Some recently released documents express concern about the limited …

The Intersection Between Science And Computer Science Is Almost Empty, Dick Hamlet

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Traditionally, a science such as physics overlaps with mathematics and engineering in a way that has been astonishingly productive. The math provides precise expression for the science, which in turn supplies the engineering with the information it needs to exploit physical phenomena. Computer science naturally wishes to put itself in the center of the traditional picture as a science. Unfortunately, it won't wash. The `science' of programming is pure and simple mathematics, not science. The distinction is more than linguistic, since science and mathematics have quite distinct goals and methods. By making the wrong choice, computer science research has been …

The Correspondence Of Attachment Dimensions To Prayer Styles Among Undergraduate Students, Nathaniel Aaron Lamkin

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Parsimony And Quantum Mechanics: An Analysis Of The Copenhagen And Bohmian Interpretations, Jhenna Voorhis

Scripps Senior Theses

Parsimony, sometime referred to as simplicity, is an effective criterion of theory choice in the case of Quantum Mechanics. The Copenhagen and Bohmian interpretations are rival theories, with the Bohmian interpretation being more parsimonious. More parsimonious theories have a higher probability of being true than less parsimonious rivals. The Bohmian interpretation should thus be preferred on these grounds.

Book Review: Philosophy Of Science After Feminism By Janet Kourany, Gizem Karaali

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

Janet Kourany’s book is a strange one: published by Oxford University Press (as a part of its Studies in Feminist Philosophy series), it is an academically oriented book, but reading it, you sense that this is not yet another theoretical monograph. For Kourany has her ax to grind, and more importantly she has a program to promote. The program is for philosophers of science and is motivated and encouraged by the amazing work done in the past few decades by feminist scientists and feminist scholars of science, technology, and society. In the following I will try to explain why I …

Mechanistic Explanations And Animal Model Simulations In Neuroscience, Nina Atanasova

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

The ‘new mechanists’ assume that discovering neural mechanisms is a major aim of neuroscience where this constitutes a process of explaining. They strive to articulate the norms for good explanations. I argue that: the normative project of the ontic mechanistic explanation is unrealistic; the epistemological version of mechanistic explanation accounts for the practical epistemological constraints of neuroscience but fails normatively; hence a dilemma: either methodologically strong but unrealistic or epistemologically realistic but methodologically weak view of mechanistic explanation. I propose that the solution is in abandoning the idea that the study of mechanisms in neuroscience aims mainly at explaining. Model-building …