Experimentation, Research Paper Example

Is it possible to gain true knowledge from a scientific experiment or are these simply devices to shore up belief?

In the context of philosophy knowledge has been largely defined as belief concepts that are considered to be true, justified and actionable.  As such this caters for a broad school of thought that may be defined as knowledge e.g. a theory, a hypothesis, a concept etc.  In its very general form philosophy tends to focus more on propositional knowledge as opposed to expertise.  The earliest concept of gaining knowledge was by way of a mentor or tutor, for example the mentorship of Plato by Socrates.  The concept of knowledge has been defined in a number of different and distinct ways, for example:- (Trumbull, 2010)

The knowledge concept has been used as a synonym for belief.  In psychological terms the thoughts or memories one retains in the mind.

All people have beliefs that may or may not be applicable to real knowledge. For example a large proportion believe in God but this has not been scientifically proven. These concepts may not lend themselves to scientific proof and it is possible that the belief is false; however such belief retained by people is thought of as knowledge.

Knowledge is considered to be some form of expertise in a certain skill set. knowing how to complete a certain task is different however from the proposition that it is true; the latter being propositional knowledge. In experiments carried out by Isaac Newton the physicality of science could prove the biological processes, thus constraining knowledge from experimentation. (Rosenberg, 2005)

The Scientific Experiment

Knowledge from the scientific process normally involves four steps that culminate in an experiment. For example:-

1. The use of observation in the study of a certain phenomena
2. The construction of a hypothesis as a basis for defining the problem statement
3. The use of said hypothesis in order to demonstrate the results of observations or analysis
4. Performance of Experiments to test predictions and potential outcomes.

After the experiment has been carried out the results are used to determine whether the acquired knowledge confirms or denies the original hypothesis or problem statement.  Where there is a direct correlation between the hypothesis and the predicted outcome of the experiment ( positive affirmation), we have proved the hypothesis. This is then often peer reviewed, taking the results and distributing these to colleagues for analysis and comments. Because of the ability to evidence or justify the hypothesis many view scientific experiment  as the most reliable source of knowledge.  This does not always hold true in philosophical terms . The issues relate to the fact that both justification and evidence are considered to be epistemic features of belief. Empiricism states that knowledge acquisition comes from experience and this should be from the basis of science. (Novak, 2011).

Another modern scientist Descartes, like Plato believed in deductive reasoning  and maintained that the gathering of data and scientific experiments were indeed valuable means of knowledge acquisition. (MacDonald, 2009).  So whether experiments deliver true knowledge is a question of interpretation from different perspectives; it might be argued that science goes a long way towards delivering this.

Works Cited

MacDonald, A. J. (2009). The world perceived. In A. J. MacDonald, The world perceived (p. 5). New York: Createspace.

Novak, I. (2011). Science: A many splendored thing. In I. Novak, Science: A many splendored thing (p. 139). New York: World Scientific .

Rosenberg, A. (2005). Philosophy of science: a contemporary introduction. In A. Rosenberg, Philosophy of science: a contemporary introduction (pp. 9-10). New York : Routledge.

Trumbull, G. (2010). Philosophy of Knowledge: An Inquiry Into the Nature, Limits, and Validity of Human Cognitive Faculty. New York: BiblioBazzar.