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edit   Philosophy of Science Isaac Newton The 'philosophy of science' is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, including the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. In this respect, the philosophy of science is closely related to epistemology and the philosophy of language. Note that issues of scientific ethics are not usually considered to be part of the philosophy of science; they are studied in such fields as bioethics and science studies. In particular, the philosophy of science considers the following topics: the character and the development of concepts and terms, propositions and hypotheses, arguments and conclusions, as they function in science; the manner in which science explains natural phenomena and predicts natural occurrences; the types of reasoning that are used to arrive at scientific conclusions; the formulation, scope, and limits of scientific method; the means that should be used for determining when scientific information has adequate objective support; and the implications of scientific methods and models, along with the technology that arises from scientific knowledge for the larger society. More about the philosophy of science... edit   Selected Article Philosophy of physics is the study of the fundamental, philosophical questions underlying modern physics, the study of matter and energy and how they interact. The main questions concern the nature of space and time, atoms and atomism. Also the predictions of cosmology, the interpretation of the results of quantum mechanics, the foundations of statistical mechanics, causality, determinism, and the nature of physical laws. Classically, several of these questions were studied as part of metaphysics (for example, those about causality, determinism, and space and time). Today, the philosophy of physics is very close to the philosophy of science, and is the most active subtopic within it. edit   Selected picture A common representation of the uncertainty principle is Schrödinger's cat, a seemingly paradoxical thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger that attempts to illustrate the incompleteness of an early interpretation of quantum mechanics when going from subatomic to macroscopic systems. edit   Quote "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." — Galileo Galilei edit   Selected biography Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher, regarded by many as the greatest scientist in the history of science. By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from this system, he was the first to show that the motion of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws. The unifying and deterministic power of his laws was integral to the scientific revolution. It was Newton’s conception of the universe based upon Natural and rationally understandable laws that became the ideological seed for the Age of Enlightenment, during which it (along with the works of Galileo and Robert Boyle) became the inspiration for the application of the singular concept of Natural Law to every physical and social field of the day. edit   Did you know... ...that a thought experiment uses a hypothetical scenario to help us understand things through a priori, rather than empirical methodology? ...that Paul Feyerabend's theory of epistemological anarchism in the philosophy of science led him to be labeled the "worst enemy of science" by his detractors? ...that the philosophy of biology has grown with the rise of Neodarwinism, the discovery of the structure of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and more recent advances in genetic engineering? ...that Occam's razor argues the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible? ...that Scientism is an ideology which holds that science has primacy over other interpretations of life? ...Archive/Nominations edit   WikiProjects Philosophy of science • Science • History of Science • Philosophy • Logic • Epistemology edit   Categories Philosophy of science Anti-psychiatry • Determinism • Empiricism • Epistemology • Evolution • Free will • History of science • Holism • Ontology • Philosophy of biology • Philosophy of physics • Pseudoscience • Reductionism • Skepticism • Sociology of scientific knowledge • Vitalism edit   Topics Philosophy of science: Biology • Chemistry • Information • Language • Logic • Mathematics (Education, Probability) • Mind (Artificial intelligence, Perception) • Physics (Space & time, Thermal & statistical physics) • Social sciences (Environment, Psychology) • Technology Epistemology: A priori and a posteriori • Analysis • Analytic-synthetic distinction • Belief • Causality • Coherentism • Constructivist epistemology • Contextualism • Descriptive knowledge • Determinism • Empiricism • Faith and rationality • Fallibilism • Foundationalism • Gettier problem • Holism • Infinitism • Innatism • Internalism and externalism • Knowledge • Objectivity • Positivism • Proposition • Rationalism • Reductionism • Regress argument • Reliabilism • Simplicity • Skepticism • Speculative reason • Theaetetus (dialogue) • Theory of forms • Theory of justification • Transcendental idealism • Truth • Uniformitarianism • Vienna Circle • Vitalism Ontology: Being • Category of being • Change • Cogito ergo sum • Dualism • Embodied philosophy • Entity • Existence • Existentialism • Identity • Integrative level • Physical object • Properties • Reality • Relativism • Scientific realism • Subjectivism • Substance theory • Type theory • Universal • Unobservables General: Anti-psychiatry • Commensurability • Demarcation problem • Evolution • Free will • History of science • Pseudoscience • Rhetoric of science • Scientific method • Scientism • Sociology of scientific knowledge edit   Things you can do Here are some tasks you can do: Article requests: Science of science, Ethnoscience, Blind posits theory, Cognition theory, Epistemic support, Paul Durbin, Larry Hickman, Philosophy of astronomy, More... Cleanup: Analytic-synthetic distinction, Causality, Coherentism, Constructivist epistemology, Contextualism, Existence, Existentialism, Philosophy of science, Proposition, Relativism, Substance theory, Universal (metaphysics), William Whewell Expand: Ontology, Pierre Duhem, Philosophy of mathematics education, Philosophy of probability, Physical body, Positivism, Unobservables Merge: Identity (philosophy) ← Identity and change, Platonic epistemology ← Platonic doctrine of recollection, Causality (split), Objectivity (philosophy) ← Objectivity (science) NPOV: Reality, David Stove Stubs: Berlin Circle (philosophy), Biological determinism, Boundary-work, Cartesian anxiety, Causal chain, Chaos argument, Clockmaker hypothesis, Conceptual definition, Condition of possibility, Deductive-nomological, Descriptive science, More... Other: Science collaboration of the month: Carbon • More mathematical and natural sciences, or philosophy pages needing attention... edit   Related portals Science History of Science Philosophy All science portals

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