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Concepts in the Philosophy of Science

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Define and make a distinction between the following terms:
philosophy of science, paradigm, epistemology, and ontology

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Solution Summary

The solution provides a concise discussion of the important elements and concepts in relation to the Philosophy of Science, explaining what the Philosophy of Science is about and defining paradigms, epistemology and the meaning of ontology in relation to the creation of scientific knowledge. Explained concisely and comprehensively, the solution will help students of science and philosophy in tackling these difficult concepts. The solution comes in .txt and a .doc files (as an attachment).

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The Philosophy of Science

During the period of enlightenment when the Scientific Circuit of Knowledge slowly emerged to replace the Religious Circuit of Knowledge as the manner by which truth and facts are arrived at by scholars and the learned, the manner by which knowledge is constructed and created became an interest in itself. Critical and Philosophical inquiries as to the nature and fundamentals of scientific knowledge gave birth to the Philosophy of Science, a branch of critical inquiry concerned in the epistemological, anxiological & metaphysical aspects of science. When we refer to a body of knowledge as a science, we denote the process by which new knowledge is produced - via the scientific method through the use of a multitude of theories influenced by philosophies tested over and over again for the purpose of verification to ensure that a universal theory or truth about reality is produced - this is at least the case in the natural sciences. In the Social Sciences universal theories proof to be ideas too farfetched due to the nature of the social world - all variables in the social world since it is an open system cannot be accounted for so while theories are verifiable and applicable they can never claim universality. The Philosophy of Science is said to have had its roots in the mind of Auguste Comte, the father of Sociology. Other influential figures include Karl Popper, William Whewell and David Hume. In general, the philosophy of science is concerned in exploring what distinguishes science from non-science and how to deal with generalizations, theories and scientific laws. Science Philosophers are interested also in the nitty-gritty of 'scientific laws' within the sciences especially in the relationship of the theories and laws in particular sciences and the question of their cross applicability to other ...

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