Values, practices, and philosophy of science

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Felsefe Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2016

Öğrenci: RAŞİT HASAN KELER

Danışman: DAVİD GRÜNBERG

Özet:

The main aim of philosophy of science is to clarify the nature of science. I believe that this can only be achieved by specifying the values and practices of particular scientific theories and research traditions. Therefore this text is about practices of sciences and in particular, about what scientists and scientific communities prefer about and choose the theories, research programs, models, tools, data, hypothesis, theoretical frameworks, and all kinds of things they employ. What needs to be done is not to assume the values and practices of science, but rather to find them out. I give numerous examples from the sciences to exhibit different practices, values, and their connections. After my discussion of practices and values, I move on to discussion of various philosophy of science issues. I believe that the root of many philosophy of science issues is a lack of consideration of practices and values of science. I show that a lot of these issues dissolve once we look at the issues informed by the practices and values. Discussed issues include the aim of science issue, objectivity and unbiasedness, rationality, underdetermination, confirmation, demarcation, and social constructivism.