Lecture 7. Philosophy of science and technology. Theme 2. Positivism and philosophy of technology

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Astana IT University
Philosophy
Lecturer: Ainur Abdina - Doctor of philosophical sciences,
Associate Professor

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Lecture 7. Philosophy of science
and technology
Theme 2. Positivism and philosophy
of technology.
The purpose of the lecture: consideration of the
positivist tradition in the philosophy of science,
as well as ethical issues of the philosophy of
technology.

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Topics:
1. The positivist tradition in the philosophy of
science.
2. Post positivism and its representatives.
3. Philosophy of technology.

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Basic concepts:
Positivism, machism, empirio-criticism,
neopositivism, postpositivism, scientific
revolution, verification, falsification,
paradigm, "demonism of technology".

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Positivism as a philosophy
of science
The First Positivism (O. Comte, J. Mill, G.
Spencer)
Machism, or empirio-criticism (E. Mach, R.
Avenarius)
Neopositivism, or logical positivism
(B. Russell, L. Wittgenstein, Wiener Kreis)
Postpositivism (K. Popper, T. Kuhn, I. Lakatos,
P. Feyerabend, etc.)

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The first positivism
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
first described the
epistemological
perspective
of positivism in The Course in
Positive Philosophy, a series
of texts published between
1830 and 1842.

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The first positivism
• Comte formulated the "Law of Three
Stages" describing the intellectual
evolution of mankind. Comte divided
the development of mankind into three
stages: theological, metaphysical and
positive.

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The first positivism
John Stuart Mill
Herbert Spencer
(1806-1873)
(1820-1903)

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The second positivism
• Machism, or empirio-criticism.
Ernst Mach
(1838-1916)
Richard Avenarius
(1843-1896)

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The second positivism
• "Second positivism" tried to radically
and permanently rid science of the
danger of any "metaphysical diseases".
From the point of view of
representatives of this stage of
positivism, the theory of knowledge
should be an adequate description of
cognitive activity.

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Neopositivism, or logical
positivism
• Logical positivism, or neopositivism, is
a school of philosophy that includes
empiricism, the idea that observable proofs
are necessary for cognition of the world,
based on rationalism, on mathematical and
logical-linguistic constructions in
epistemology. Logical positivism asserts that
the world is knowable, it is only necessary to
get rid of the unobservable.

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Neopositivism, or logical
positivism
Bertrand Russell
(1872–1970)
English mathematician,
philosopher and public
figure. Winner of the
Nobel Prize in Literature
in 1950.

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Neopositivism, or logical
positivism
Ludwig Wittgenstein
(1889-1951)
Austrian-British philosopher
who worked mainly in the
fields of logic, philosophy of
mathematics, philosophy of mind and philosophy
of language. He is considered one of the greatest
philosophers of our time.

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Post-positivism
• The main problem in the Post positivism is an
explanation of the development of science,
the study of logic and the growth of scientific
knowledge. Its representatives are interested
the following questions: How does a new
theory of how it is stated in the new
community, what are the criteria for
selection of competing scientific theories,
etc.

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Post-positivism
Karl Popper
(1902–1994)
The problem of demarcation;
• The principle of falsification;
• The principle of fallibilism;
• The theory of the "three worlds".

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Post-positivism
Thomas Kuhn
(1922-1996)
Author of the famous book
"The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions".
The most important
Kuhn 's concept is a paradigm.

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Post-positivism
Paul Feyerabend
(1924-1994)
An adherent
of the epistemological
anarchism is against
all programs in general.

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Post-positivism
Postpositivists analyze the history of science
in an attempt to find the basis of the human
mind through the history of science;
• Postpositivists analyze the dynamics of
science. If the neo-positivists raised the
question of how to distinguish between
philosophy and science, then the
postpositivists were interested in the
question of the real movement of science,
about what factors influence science.

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Philosophy of technology
The philosophy of technology explores:
• The phenomenon of technology in general
• Place in social development
• A broad historical perspective

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Philosophy of technology
Ethical issues
"The demonism
of technology"

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Control questions
1. What unites the various stages of the positivist
tradition in the philosophy of science?
2. What is the essence of the verification
principle - the central position of logical
positivism?
3. What is the essence of the principle of
falsification, according to Popper?
4. How does Thomas Kuhn explain what a
paradigm is?
5. What are the main problems of the philosophy
of technology?