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Denis Diderot

2010-01-12T23:42:09Z

TexasJamesP:

[[Image:DenisDiderot.jpg|thumb|right|250px]]
'''Denis Diderot''' (1713-1784) was a French [[philosopher]] and leader of the [[Enlightenment]]. A polymath, he contributed in numerous disciplines, including philosophy, literature and art criticism. He speculated on [[free will]] and the attachment to material things.

He is best known for editing a great multivolume French language [[encyclopedia]] of scientific and social knowledge known as "[[Encyclopédie]]". He worked on it from 1748 to 1772.

Diderot held a completely materialistic view of the universe, and believed all human behavior is determined by hereditary. He therefore warned his fellow philosophers against an overemphasis on mathematics and against the blind optimism that sees in the growth of physical knowledge an automatic social and human progress. He rejected the [[Idea of Progress]]. In his opinion, the aim to explain the universe by means of geometry was doomed to failure. Therefore, he founded his philosophy on experiment and the study of probabilities. He wrote several articles and supplements concerning gambling, mortality rates, and inoculation against smallpox for the 'Encyclopédie.' There he discreetly but firmly refuted d'Alembert's technical errors and personal positions on probability.

He wrote extensively on the theater; his understanding of the classical theater is characterized by audience-stage separation, orientation to the universal spectator, and stress on the aesthetics of the theater coming from the actors and the playwright.

Diderot's most famous work, ''Le Neveu de Rameau'' (''Rameau's Nephew,'' 1805), was published posthumously. A satire of Diderot's society and era, the work was the first bourgeois drama and exemplified Diderot's theory that art must embody a moral point of view.

In 1772-74 Empress [[Catherine the Great]] of Russia brought him to St. Petersburg, where his ideas had enormous influence. In turn the experience in a strange land broadened his outlook as well.
==Further reading==
* Blum, Carol. ''Diderot: The Virtue of a Philosopher'' (1974)
* Crocker, Lester G. ''Diderot's Chaotic Order: Approach to a Synthesis'' (1974)
* Fellows, Otis E. ''Diderot,'' (1989)
* France, Peter. ''Diderot'' (1983)
* Mason, John H. ''The Irresistible Diderot'' (1982)
* Wilson, Arthur McCandless. ''Diderot'' (1972), the standard biography
===Primary sources===
* Diderot, Denis, ed. ''A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry, Vol. 1'' (1993 reprint) [http://www.amazon.com/Diderot-Pictorial-Encyclopedia-Industry-Archive/dp/0486274284/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262089601&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Diderot, Denis. ''Diderot: Political Writings'' ed. by John Hope Mason and Robert Wokler (1992) [http://www.amazon.com/Diderot-Political-Writings-Cambridge-History/dp/0521369118/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262089601&sr=1-6 excerpt and text search, with introduction]
* [http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=10&lr=&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=1&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=lang_en&as_vt=&as_auth=diderot&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= main works of Diderot in English translation]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diderot, Denis}}
[[category:French Philosophers]]
[[Category:Encyclopedists]]
[[Category:Enlightenment]]

Denis Diderot

2010-01-12T23:40:49Z

TexasJamesP:

[[Image:DenisDiderot.jpg|thumb|right|250px]]
'''Denis Diderot''' (1713-1784) was a French [[philosopher]] and leader of the [[Enlightenment]]. A polymath, he contributed in numerous disciplines, including philosophy, literature and art criticism. He speculated on [[free will]] and the attachment to material things.

he is best known for editing a great multivolume French language [[encyclopedia]] of scientific and social knowledge known as "[[Encyclopédie]]". He worked on it from 1748 to 1772.

Diderot held a completely materialistic view of the universe, and believed all human behavior is determined by hereditary. He therefore warned his fellow philosophers against an overemphasis on mathematics and against the blind optimism that sees in the growth of physical knowledge an automatic social and human progress. He rejected the [[Idea of Progress]]. In his opinion, the aim to explain the universe by means of geometry was doomed to failure. Therefore, he founded his philosophy on experiment and the study of probabilities. He wrote several articles and supplements concerning gambling, mortality rates, and inoculation against smallpox for the 'Encyclopédie.' There he discreetly but firmly refuted d'Alembert's technical errors and personal positions on probability.

He wrote extensively on the theater; his understanding of the classical theater is characterized by audience-stage separation, orientation to the universal spectator, and stress on the aesthetics of the theater coming from the actors and the playwright.

Diderot's most famous work, ''Le Neveu de Rameau'' (''Rameau's Nephew,'' 1805), was published posthumously. A satire of Diderot's society and era, the work was the first bourgeois drama and exemplified Diderot's theory that art must embody a moral point of view.

In 1772-74 Empress [[Catherine the Great]] of Russia brought him to St. Petersburg, where his ideas had enormous influence. In turn the experience in a strange land broadened his outlook as well.
==Further reading==
* Blum, Carol. ''Diderot: The Virtue of a Philosopher'' (1974)
* Crocker, Lester G. ''Diderot's Chaotic Order: Approach to a Synthesis'' (1974)
* Fellows, Otis E. ''Diderot,'' (1989)
* France, Peter. ''Diderot'' (1983)
* Mason, John H. ''The Irresistible Diderot'' (1982)
* Wilson, Arthur McCandless. ''Diderot'' (1972), the standard biography
===Primary sources===
* Diderot, Denis, ed. ''A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry, Vol. 1'' (1993 reprint) [http://www.amazon.com/Diderot-Pictorial-Encyclopedia-Industry-Archive/dp/0486274284/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262089601&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Diderot, Denis. ''Diderot: Political Writings'' ed. by John Hope Mason and Robert Wokler (1992) [http://www.amazon.com/Diderot-Political-Writings-Cambridge-History/dp/0521369118/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262089601&sr=1-6 excerpt and text search, with introduction]
* [http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=10&lr=&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=1&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=lang_en&as_vt=&as_auth=diderot&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= main works of Diderot in English translation]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diderot, Denis}}
[[category:French Philosophers]]
[[Category:Encyclopedists]]
[[Category:Enlightenment]]

Ludwig Wittgenstein

2009-12-11T01:43:07Z

TexasJamesP: /* Two "Wittgenstein"s */

[[Image:Ludwig Wittgenstein.jpg|thumb|Ludwig Wittgenstein]]
''' Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein''' (Vienna, 1889 - 1951) was an Austrian [[philosopher]], the most influential of the twentieth century. He was pupil of [[Bertrand Russell]] and received the influence of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] and [[Gottlob Frege]].

<blockquote>
Raised in a prominent Viennese family, Ludwig Wittgenstein studied engineering in Germany and England, but became interested in the foundations of mathematics and pursued philosophical studies with Moore at Cambridge before entering the Austrian army during World War I... Wittgenstein had a lifelong interest in religion and claimed to see every problem from a religious point of view, but never committed himself to any formal religion. [http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/witt.htm]
</blockquote>

==Two "Wittgenstein"s==

Wittgenstein wrote the ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' (1922) and ''Philosophical Investigations'' (1953) amongst other things; both concerned with the intersection of [[logic]] and [[language]] (Analytic philosophy).

Philosophers often refer to an "early" and "late" Wittgenstein as a result of the dichotomy between the views presented in the two works. The ''Tractatus'' put forward a view akin to [[Logical positivism |Logical Positivism]] of complex propostions being constructed from basic "atomic" facts by the operation of logic. The Wittgenstein in the ''Tractatus'' attempted to get people to stop doing philosophy as such. He felt that since one cannot properly discuss the disciplines of metaphysics, theology, or anything predicated upon them, in the language of atomic facts and logical operators, one ought not discuss them at all. He concludes his ''Tractatus,'' thusly, " 6.54, My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.) He must surmount these propositions; then he sees the world rightly. 7, Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."<ref>http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/tlph.html</ref>

In contrast in the ''Investigations'' Wittgenstein denied the simplicity of the ''Tractatus'' and explored the complexities of language and meaning.

== See also ==

*[[Philosophy]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.iep.utm.edu/w/wittgens.htm Ludwig Wittgenstein]
*[http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/witt.htm Ludwig Wittgenstein]

[[Category:Philosophers|Wittgenstein, Ludwig]]

Science

2009-12-11T01:01:51Z

TexasJamesP: /* Principles of science */

[[Image:Cassini-science-289.jpg|right]]
'''Science''' is "the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment."<ref>Soanes,C. and Stevenson, A. (eds.) (2005) 'The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition)' Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K.</ref> Science can be divided into two areas: [[natural science]], dealing with the [[physical]], [[natural]] world, and [[social science]], dealing with society and human nature.

Science differs from other methodologies of classifying knowledge in that a scientific theory is a description of the world which in principle is cabable of being disproved; this is known as [[falsifiability]]. It is this property which distinguishes science from other possible methods of discovering knowledge.

[[Epicurus]] is an important figure in the development of the [[scientific method]]. He insisted that nothing should be accepted except that which has been sufficiently tested through direct observation and logical deduction. [[Roger Bacon]] is hailed by many as the father of modern science. His focus on empirical approaches to science was influential. He wrote an encyclopedia, his ''Opus Majus''.

People who study science are called [[scientist]]s. Most of the early scientists who started many of the scientific fields, and some of history's greatest thinkers, such as [[Galileo Galilei]] and [[Isaac Newton]], believed in [[God]], or some other higher power, and many were [[creationists]].
In addition, [[Christianity]] [[Christianity and Science|played a pivotal role in the development of modern science]]. However, in recent years, American scientists have been much more [[atheism|atheistic]] as a group than the general public. <ref>http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/atheism1.htm</ref>

== Principles of science ==

The basis of modern science is observation and hypothesis. It involves constructing the best theory to explain an occurrence based on the evidence at the time.

Economist [[Milton Friedman]] said, "In all of science, progress comes through people proposing hypotheses which are subject to test and rejected and replaced by better hypotheses." [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10]

The scientific method consists of two stages, theory formation and theory testing. In the early 20th Century the scientific method was commonly understood to follow the inductive procedure, whereby general statements are derived from a collection of singular observations. It was thought that through this method theories were constructed; a collection of observations led to the formation of a general theory to explain them. Secondly, at the testing stage, it was considered that a hypothesis could be verified through a collection of singular observations.

Karl Popper, considered by many to be the most important contributor to the philosophy of science in recent times, put forward a damning critique of induction, going so far is to claim that it did not exist. Popper argued that general theories cannot ever be conclusively verified by singular observations, but that such a theory could be conclusively falsified by such means.

The consensus today is based in large part upon the work of Popper, although in general induction is believed to play a part. The modern view is that the scientific method employs both inductive and deductive methods and is characterised by the principle of falsification:

* A theory is put forward (Popper argues that this is not inductive, but the consensus is that people are led to invent theories based upon previous observations)
* This theory is provisionally assumed to be true for the purposes of testing it.
* Assuming the theory is true, we can logically follow it through to a specific and inevitable outcome, a prediction, which becomes the hypothesis. In order for the hypothesis to be considered scientific it must be falsifiable.
* The hypothesis is repeatedly tested empirically.
* If the observations do not falsify the hypothesis then we accept the theory provisionally (note, we cannot say that it is now 'fact', nor that is has been 'proven')
* If the observations do falsify the hypothesis then we reject it in its current form.
* The theory, or at least parts of it, can then be modified, or a new theory proposed, which takes us back to the beginning of the process.

Since verification of general theories is logically impossible, science is not, as many believe, a body of accumlated 'facts', but rather a collection of theories that have yet to be falsified. Via falsification we can move closer and closer to the truth, but since verification is not possible, we can never know if we ever reach the goal of 'ultimate truth' itself.

==Naturalism and science==
Since the beginning of modern science, scientists have worked under the assumption that their subjects of study have been controlled by consistent natural laws.
There is good evidence that this assumption was based on the [[Christianity|Christian]] view that the laws were created by a consistent creator Who didn't change those laws on a whim.<ref>See [[Natural science#Beginnings]]</ref>
This assumption is seen as a prerequisite for logical deduction to act on the observations made. Without the assumption that the universe is consistent we cannot apply the lessons drawn from an observation to any area other than the observations themselves. If a [[chemical reaction]] occurs in a given solution in a laboratory in one city it is assumed that the same reaction can occur in a different laboratory in a different city on a different day because the chemical [[solution]] and situations will be the same.

If a capricious supernatural force was to enter the equation they could not be controlled for and could not be studied.

The physical sciences largely concern themselves with questions involving the natural, not the supernatural, but this is not the same as assuming that the supernatural does not exist. In addition, there are also the social sciences like [[history]]. [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologists]] maintain that history testifies to the supernatural existing and that the physical sciences (such as [[Biblical archaeology]]) can aid in historical determinations and testify to the existence of God and the truth of biblical Christianity.

Three broad philosophies have developed in the scientific community.
* "[[Methodological naturalism]]" adheres to [[naturalism]] insofar as it concerns scientific experiments and observations, but does not rule out a personal deity. It does, however, ''a priori'' rule out the supernatural being an explanation for observations.
* "[[Philosophical naturalism]]" adheres to the belief that there is no beings or forces beyond what can be observed; this [[atheism|atheistic]] view rejects the supernatural, or is skeptical of such beliefs.
* The third approach is to follow the inference to the best explanation regarding whether or not a supernatural or natural cause best explains a past or present observation.<ref>http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/1315/</ref><ref>http://www.cgst.edu/publication/journal/43/J43_203_Forum04Abstract.pdf</ref> For example, this third approach is advocated by [[creation science|creation scientists]] and [[intelligent design]] theorists when it comes to the origins of the natural world. Creation scientists and intelligent design theorists rightfully maintain the falsity of the [[evolution|evolutionary]] position given the lack of evidence for evolutionary position and the many lines of evidence against the evolutionary position. Another example is that the [[First Law of Thermodynamics|first]] and [[Second law of thermodynamics|second]] laws of thermodynamics argue against an eternal [[universe]], and [[creation science|creation scientists]] claim that these laws point to the universe being supernaturally created.<ref>[http://godevidences.net/space/lawsofscience.php Evidences for God From Space—Laws of Science]</ref><ref>Thompson, Bert, [http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2329 So Long, Eternal Universe; Hello Beginning, Hello End!], 2001 (Apologetics Press)</ref><ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences14.html</ref> But in other respects, such as why [[Krakatoa]] exploded, a natural explanation would be considered the best explanation.

==Religious cultivation of early modern science==
''See also:'' [[Christianity and Science]]

According to the historian [[H. Floris Cohen]], there exists two distinct levels of argument along this line of historical scholarship. <ref> [http://books.google.com/books?id=wu8b2NAqnb0C The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry], [[H. Floris Cohen]], University of Chicago Press 1994, 680 pages, ISBN 0-2261-1280-2, pages 308-321 </ref> The first to be proposed was the [[Merton thesis]] in the late 1930's, which parallels the [[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism|Weber thesis]] in suggesting that the rise of science was due, at first, to a [[protestant work ethic]] but later extended to a more general biblical ethic. The second to be proposed was that of [[Reijer Hooykaas]], who held the rise of early modern science was due to a unique combination of Greek and biblical thought. One of the main aspects of Hooykaas's argument was that the Greek disrepect for manual work prevented an experimental science from truly developing until the biblical view of honoring work with one's hands was socially sanctioned. Hooykaas reaches the conclusion that "Metaphorically speaking, whereas the bodily ingredients of science may have been greek, its vitamins and hormones were biblical." <ref> * [http://books.google.com/books?id=c6TEDHvAbXAC ''Religion and the Rise of Modern Science''], Regent College Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1-5738-3018-6 </ref>

Historian and professor of religion [[Eugene Marion Klaaren|Eugene M Klaaren]] holds that "a belief in divine creation" was central to an emergence of science in seventeenth-century England. The philosopher [[Michael B. Foster]] has published influential analytical philosophy connecting Christian doctrines of creation with empiricism. Historian William B. Ashworth has argued against the historical notion of distinctive mind-sets and the idea of Catholic and Protestant sciences in "Catholicism and early modern science."<ref> [http://books.google.com/books?id=hs2edDIGCqEC ''God and nature''], Lindberg and Numbers Ed., 1986, pp. 136-66; see also [http://cas.umkc.edu/history/faculty/AshworthW/pub.html William B. Ashworth Jr.'s publication list]; this is noted on page 366 of ''Science and Religion'', [[John Hedley Brooke]], 1991, [[Cambridge University Press]]</ref> Historians James R. Jacob and Margaret C. Jacob have published the paper "The Anglican Origins of Modern Science," which endeavors to show a linkage between seventeenth century [[Anglican]] intellectual transformations and influential English scientists (e.g., [[Robert Boyle]] and [[Isaac Newton]]).<ref> [http://www.compilerpress.atfreeweb.com/Anno%20Jacob%20&%20Jacob%20Anglican%20Fdn%20of%20Modern%20Science.htm The Anglican Origins of Modern Science], [[Isis (journal)|Isis]], Volume 71, Issue 2, June 1980, 251-267; this is also noted on page 366 of ''Science and Religion'', [[John Hedley Brooke]], 1991, [[Cambridge University Press]]</ref>

Two well-respected theological surveys, which also illustrate other historical interactions between religion and science occurring in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, are [[John Dillenberger]]'s ''Protestant Thought and Natural Science'' ([[Doubleday]], 1960) and [[Christopher B. Kaiser]]'s ''Creation and the History of Science'' ([[Eerdmans]], 1991).

{{quotation|When natural philosophers referred to ''laws'' of nature, they were not glibly choosing that metaphor. Laws were the result of legislation by an intelligent deity. Thus the philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) insisted that he was discovering the "laws that God has put into nature." Later Newton would declare that the regulation of the solar system presupposed the "counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being."<ref> [[John Hedley Brooke]], ''Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives'', 1991, [[Cambridge University Press]], ISBN 0-521-23961-3, page 19 </ref>
|Historian and [[Oxford University]] [[Science and Religion]] theologian [[John Hedley Brooke]]}}

[[University of California at Berkeley]]-educated historian [[Ronald L. Numbers]] has stated that this thesis "received a boost" from mathematician and philosopher[[Alfred North Whitehead]]'s ''[[Science and the Modern World]]'' (1925). Numbers has also claimed "Despite the manifest shortcomings of the claim that Christianity gave birth to science—most glaringly, it ignores or minimizes the contributions of ancient Greeks and medieval Muslims—it too, refuses to succumb to the death it deserves. The sociologist [[Rodney Stark]] at [[Baylor University]], a [[Southern Baptist]] institution, is only the latest in a long line of Christian apologists to insist that 'Christian theology was essential for the rise of science.'"<ref> ''Science and Christianity in pulpit and pew'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2007, [[Ronald L. Numbers]], p. 4, and p.138 n. 3 where Numbers specifically raises his concerns with regards to the works of [[Michael B. Foster]], [[Reijer Hooykaas]], [[Eugene M. Klaaren]], and [[Stanley L. Jaki]] </ref>

==Notes==

{{reflist}}

==See also==
* [[Scientific method]]
* [[Computing]]

[[category:science]]