Lecture 6: Philosophy of science

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Lecture 6 Philosophy of science ethics

• Aims objectives
• Give a working definition of science
• Also examine science as a social process
• Examine hypotheses and tests of these
• Examine what we mean by causality
• Examine fraud in science
• Explore issues of ethics in human research

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What is science?

• Science seeks to understand the factors
  responsible for the stable relationships between
  events (Jones Gerrard, 1967)
• general laws through systematic observation
  (Gergen, 1973)
• Science is an agreed upon set of procedures, not
  construct or theories (Scarr,1985)
• Knowledge acquired by study trained skill
  (OED)

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Indication-deduction

• Logical deductive methods
• From theory to observations
• Indication
• From observations to theory
• Realists vs anti-realists

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History scientific knowledge

• Kuhn (1970) scientific revolutions
• Gergen social psychology as history
• Hard science has temporal stability
• Social phenomena do not has such stability
• Values and culture

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Measurement Psychology as pathological science

• Joel Michell
• Science requires interval or ratio measurement
• At best ordinal
• Stevens - measurement is the assignment of
  number according to a rule
• Psychology (especially psychometrics) in denial
  that it is not quantitative
• Probabilities, rt, time, etc.

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Mill
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Correlation causationcorrelation does not
imply causation, causation does not necessarily
imply correlation (r .34)
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Causality

• Hume
• Temporal order
• Meet in time and space
• Cause produces single effect
• Many causes produce the same effect these have
  something in common
• Cause and effect relationships not always linear

• Manicas Secord
• Causal agency
• Explanation and prediction are not equivalent
• Multi-disciplinary approach

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Theories

• Principles
• Symbolise the world
• Map general principle and logical rules
• Have properties of organisation
• Permit predictions (explanation)

• Qualities
• Correspond to reality
• Parsimony
• Falsifiable
• Precision
• Operational/testable

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Falsifiability the Duhem-Quine thesis

• Theory cannot be proven, just dis-proven
• Positive incidences of a phenomenon are not
  helpful
• Duhem-Quine thesis falsification means that a
  theory needs to be adjusted not thrown out
• Social psychology is just near tautology

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Values, morals fraud

• Burt
• The painted mice
• Piltdown man
• Mendel
• Newton
• Ptolemy
• Galileo
• Dalton

• Psychology
• Medicine
• Archaeology
• Genetics
• Physics
• Astronomy
• Physics
• Physics

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Ethics and morals

• Personal morals and ethical codes may be in
  conflict
• Animal righst vs animal experimentation
• Genetic research vs religion
• GM food vs ecology

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Nuremberg code

• Consenting volunteers
• Fully informed volunteers
• Risks of experiments reduced where possible
• Protect the subject against the remotes harm
• Subjects can leave at any time
• Experiments conducted by a qualified person
• Stop if adverse effects emerge
• Results should be for the good of society
• Experiments, where possible should be based on
  previous work
• No experiment where death is expected

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Issues

• Confidentiality
• Good of society
• Deception
• Privacy
• Informed consent

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Confidentiality

• Law of the land
• Information useful to the police
• Glasgow street gangs
• Is confidentiality sacrosanct?
• Inform participants under what circumstance
  confidentiality would be broken

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Good of society

• Can you justify anything for the greater good of
  society?
• Milgram
• GM food
• De-briefing
• Milgram, all subjects were followed up 1 year
  later. 80 were glad to have been part of the
  study, 15 were ambivalent and only 1 had
  regrets. What of the other 4?

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Deception

• Milgram
• Real shocks no deception
• Trend towards multiple deceptions
• Consequentialists
• Deontologicalists

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Privacy Humpherys tea room trade

• This involved deception invasion of privacy
• Played the watch queen
• Took car numbers
• Abused a position of authority
• Pretended to be a health official

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Informed consent

• Reported in only 8 of studies (1985)
• Right to withdraw in 5
• Who does it protect?
• Informed consent leads to
• Reduced response rates
• Loss of experimental effects
• Participants have a sense of control

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Philosophical questions

• Can professions police themselves?
• Intentions and consequences?
• Are ethics committees useful and who do they
  protect? (Poppers view)
• Language of ethical codes is indicative
• Psychologists do not rather than should not
• Ethical codes are not
• Theological