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Teaching the Philosophical and Worldview Components of Science

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Abstract

A common feature of contemporary science education curricula is the expectation that as well as learning science content, students will learn something about science—its nature, its history, how it differs from non-scientific endeavours, and its interactions with culture and society. These curricular pronouncements provide an ‘open cheque’ for the inclusion of history and philosophy of science in science teacher education programmes, and for their utilisation in classrooms. Unfortunately this open cheque is too often not cashed. This paper will discuss an important aspect of the contribution of science to culture, namely its role in the development of worldviews in society. A case study of the adjustments to a central Roman Catholic doctrine occasioned by the metaphysics of Atomism which was embraced at the Scientific Revolution will be presented. Options for the reconciliation of seemingly conflicting scientific and religious worldviews are laid out, and it is claimed that as far as liberal education is concerned, the important thing is to have students first recognise what are the options, and then carefully examine them to come to their own conclusions about reconciliation or otherwise.

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Notes

  1. The basic statement is in AAAS 1989, chap. 12; 1993 chap. 12. Good (2005) amplifies the AAAS position and argues for incompatibility between scientific and religious habits of mind; Gauld (2005) defends the compatibility of the two outlooks.

  2. Two good books on this theme are Brody and Brody (1997) and Crease (2003). Some of the educational and historiographical debates concerning the use of history of science in science programmes are discussed in Matthews (1994, chap. 4).

  3. The integrative possibilities of a historically-informed science curriculum are discussed in Matthews (2000a, pp. 10–18).

  4. William Cobern (1991, 1996) canvasses much of the literature on this matter.

  5. Nehru embraced Western Enlightenment ideals whilst studying science in England. At Indian Independence he sought, just as Jefferson had done at the independence of the United States, to embody these secular, scientific, Enlightenment ideals in the Indian constitution. He called them the ‘scientific temper’. In 1981, the Nehru Centre in Bombay published a booklet with this title, jointly authored by the leaders of Indian educational, scientific and industrial fields.

  6. Notoriously Constructivism is the most recent fad that has caused immense educational damage across a swathe of countries where teachers and administrators have fallen under its influence. On this matter see Matthews (1995, 2000b) and contributions to Matthews (1998b).

  7. Some useful studies on the philosophical dimension of science are Smart (1968), Wartofsky (1968), Buchdahl (1969), Amsterdamski (1975), Trusted (1991), and Dilworth (2006).

  8. The famous Paul Arthur Schilpp anthology of commentary on Einstein is titled Albert Einstein: Philosopher—Scientist (Schilpp 1951).

  9. See for instance: Boltzmann, Theoretical Physics and Philosophical Problems (1905/1974), Helmholtz’s Science & Culture (1995), Mach’s The Science of Mechanics (1893/1960), Duhem’s The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1906/1954), Planck’s Where is Science Going? (1932), Eddington’s The Philosophy of Physical Science (1939), Jean’s Physics and Philosophy (1943/1981), Bohr Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (1958), Heisenberg Physics and Philosophy (1962), Schrödinger My View of the World (1964), Born My Life & My Views (1968), and Bohm Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980).

  10. See for instance: Bridgman Reflections of a Physicist (1950), Margenau The Nature of Physical Reality (1950), Rabi Science the Centre of Culture (Rabi 1967), Bunge Philosophy of Science (Bunge 1998), Chandrasekhar Truth and Beauty (Chandrasekhar 1987), Campbell What Is Science?, (Campbell 1921/1952), Holton Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought (Holton 1973), Cushing Philosophical Concepts in Physics (Cushing 1998), Rohrlich From Paradox to Reality (Rohrlich 1987), Shimony Search for a Naturalistic World View (Shimony 1993) and Weinberg Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries (Weinberg 2001).

  11. Beyond the substantial and careful writers listed above it needs to be acknowledged that there is a veritable legion of insubstantial and careless writers whose books are nevertheless best sellers. These authors simply muddy the waters, and bring discredit to the programme of understanding the overlap of science and philosophy.

  12. See, for instance, Susan Stebbing’s classic critique of the idealist philosophical conclusions drawn by Jeans and Eddington (Stebbing 1937/1958). See also Mario Bunge’s critiques of the idealist and subjectivist conclusions drawn from quantum mechanics by Bohm, Bohr and many proponents of the Copenhagen school (Bunge 1967).

  13. For further discussion of the role of philosophy in science teaching, see Matthews (1994, chap. 5).

  14. For discussion of values in science see Graham (1981), Resnik (1998), Lacey (2005), and contributions to Koertge (2005).

  15. For discussion of these political dimensions of science, see contributions to Jacob (1994).

  16. Some classics are Hempel (1966), Nagel (1961), Popper (1934/1959), and Scheffler (1963). It can be argued that their logical empiricist convictions resulted in them giving wrong answers to some questions, but they were perceptive in identifying the questions and rigorous in articulating answers, and this is what good philosophy is all about. See also recent texts such as Godfrey-Smith (2003), Bird (1998), Ladyman (2002); and anthologies such as Lange (2007) or Balashov and Rosenberg (2002).

  17. A look at the appalling reasoning ability of students who have studied science for six or more years is enough to dispel any laxity about the achievement of ‘routine’ philosophical competencies. All of the standard logical fallacies are regularly repeated by students in scientific reasoning tasks, and more regularly repeated in their reasoning on non-scientific topics (Matthews 1994, pp. 88–93).

  18. In one especially appalling publication, one of the most cited and most awarded of current science educators boasts that 18/24 of his students at the end of a one semester course converted from realism to constructivism which he described as ‘the most mature epistemological theory’. On this matter of indoctrination, and its implications for teaching and learning about the Nature of Science, see Matthews (1998a).

  19. Mach’s argument is discussed in Matthews (1990) and Scheffler’s argument is discussed in Matthews (1997).

  20. See the elaborate and informative discussion in Buckley (1971).

  21. The classic works on medieval impetus theory are Moody (1975) and Clagett (1959).

  22. The classic treatment is Clavelin (1974).

  23. See Hanson (1965) and Ellis (1965) for excellent discussion of Newton’s formulation of inertia.

  24. Among numerous histories of inertia, a useful one with pedagogical import is Coelho (2007).

  25. The classic discussion of the interaction of physics and metaphysics in formulation of action-at-a-distance laws is Mary Hesse’s Forces and Fields (Hesse 1961), where chapter XI is titled ‘The Metaphysical Framework of Physics’.

  26. See Bunge (2000) for discussion of the metaphysical commitments required to justify the conservation of energy principle.

  27. See discussion in Matthews (1994, pp. 60–70).

  28. See discussion in Sober (1984).

  29. As well as countless books, there are specialised academic journals dealing with philosophy of physics, philosophy of chemistry, and philosophy of biology.

  30. A lot is written on the history of science in Islamic culture, and contemporary engagements between the two; see for example Hoodbhoy (1991).

  31. For the varieties of medieval and renaissance Aristotelianisms, see Schmitt (1983).

  32. On the doctrines and history of Scholastic philosophy see De Wulf (1903/1956).

  33. Sadly this description, sans Church, fitted philosophy departments in most of the former communist states, and still fits philosophy departments in many Islamic states.

  34. On the life and philosophy of Aquinas see Gilson (1929), Copleston (1955), Weisheipl (1974) and Kenny (1980).

  35. See discussion and texts in Matthews (1989).

  36. For historical and philosophical elaboration of the mechanical world view see Dijksterhuis (1961/1986), Harré (1964), and Westfall (1971).

  37. See Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book II Chap. 8 (Locke 1689/1924, pp. 64–73).

  38. On ancient, medieval and modern theories of matter, see contributions to McMullin (1963a, b).

  39. Desmond Clarke provides a corrective to the common view, when he writes: ‘I interpret the extant writings of Descartes as the output of a practising scientist who, somewhat unfortunately, wrote a few short and relatively unimportant philosophical essays’ (Clark 1982, p. 2).

  40. For Descartes’ early education see Gaukroger 1995, chaps. 1, 2.

  41. Ibid chap. 3.

  42. In his Discourse on Method he says that ‘I will say nothing of philosophy except that it has been studied for many centuries by the most outstanding minds without having produced anything which is not in dispute and consequently doubtful’ (Descartes 1637/1960, p. 8). For an intellectual biography of Descartes that pays detailed attention to his Scholastic philosophical education see Gaukroger (1995); for Descartes’ philosophy of science see Clarke (1982).

  43. Descartes held a modified Atomism, in as much as he did not believe in a void; for him a plenum occupied the void of the ancient atomists. See discussion in Pullman (1998, pp. 157–163).

  44. Numerous works are available on Newton’s philosophy and metaphysics, among them are McMullin (1978), Stein (2002), McGuire (1995) and Hughes (1990). Although an atomist, Newton distanced himself from Descartes’ interpretation of the theory.

  45. For Newton’s early scientific and philosophical formation see Herivel (1965).

  46. On the history of Atomism and its connections with science on the one hand and with philosophy on the other, see Pyle (1997) and Pullman (1998). An older historical study that concentrates more on the philosophical side of Atomism is Melsen (1952).

  47. There are many good accounts of the modification, and eventual breakdown, of the mechanical worldview. See especially Harman (1982, chap. 6), Einstein and Infeld (1938, chap. 2).

  48. There are countless books on the worldview of modern physics: see for example, contributions to Cushing and McMullin (1989), especially Abner Shimony’s contribution ‘Search for a Worldview Which Can Accommodate Our Knowledge of Microphysics’. See also the contributions to the special issue of Science & Education dealing with Quantum Theory and Philosophy (vol. 12 nos. 5–6, 2003).

  49. See for instance Porter (2000), Israel (2001) and Brooke (1991, chap. V).

  50. A translation of the deposition, and discussion, is also available in Finocchiaro (1989, pp. 202–204).

  51. This contention echoed through all Catholic teaching, and devotional practice, right to the present day. As one Catholic Handbook states the matter: ‘The Catholic belief is that the sacrifice of the Mass is the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ under the form of bread and wine’ (Lucey 1915, p. 93).

  52. One hundred years after Priestley’s complaints to Boscovich, Joseph McCabe, a former Franciscan priest and professor of philosophy who left the Church in the 1890s, well described the state of Roman Catholic theology when he said of his theological training that:

    The various points of dogma which are contained (or supposed to be contained) in Scripture, were first selected by the Fathers, and developed, generally by the aid of the Neo-Platonic philosophy, into formidable structures. The schoolmen completed the synthesis with the aid of Peripatetic philosophy, and elaborated the whole into a vast scheme which they called theology. (McCabe 1912, p. 73)

  53. On John Paul II’s encyclical and how it reviewed and revised the status of Thomism, see Ernst (2006).

  54. Concerning early 20th-century academic philosophy in Colombia, Daniel Restrepo wrote: ‘To the extent that the Columbian State was governed by theocratic criteria, philosophy, conceived as “servant of theology”, played the role of ideological mediator in the political action and principles of those who had held power since 1886’ (Restrepo 2003, p. 144). Being able to ‘prove’ the falsity of positivism, determinism, and evolutionism was a requirement for entry to university!

    The English philosopher Anthony Kenny gives a depressing account of comparable pseudo-philosophy being practised in the Roman ecclesiastical universities through to the 1960s (Kenny 1985)

  55. The last is of particular significance because it did put modern science centre-stage in its articulation of the ‘perennial philosophy’. For an account of the Lyceum’s principles and publications see the Introductory essay in Weisheipl (1961), also Ashley (1991). For examples of the kind of applied natural philosophy that it promoted see contributions to Kane et al. (1953).

  56. There are many accounts of the mixed fortunes of 20th-century Thomism. For an account of the dominant individuals and strands, see John (1966); for reflections on the future of Thomism see Clarke (1968), Weisheipl (1968) and Lonergan (1974).

  57. See the first volume of his three-volume The Career of Philosophy where he says ‘What is clear is that the central themes of modern philosophy have been the grappling with science and with individualistic values’ (Randall 1962, p. 22).

  58. Atomism, as an ontology, came from outside science (natural philosophy), it was a philosophical position developed by the Greek pre-Socratics, notably Democritus and Epicurus; but it was adopted by the New Science, and derived its strength and credibility from the success of its scientific adherents.

  59. For representative literature on this topic of ‘Christian Philosophy’ see Trethowan (1954) and Tresmontant (1965). For discussion of the suitability of Thomism as a vehicle for the interpretation of Christian doctrine, see McInerny (1966) and Weisheipl (1968).

  60. See Graham (1973), Joravsky (1970), Lecourt (1977) and Soyfer (1994).

  61. There has been debate about just what degree of proof a factual scientific claim needs to have before it triggers a revision in a competing factual religious claim—Augustine thought revision was needed only in the face of absolutely proven ‘scientific’ claims. The details of this debate do not bear on the present argument; for the arguments, and the debate’s literature, see McMullin (2005).

  62. John Polkinghorne could be picked out as an exemplar of a research physicist and believer, indeed he is an Anglican priest (Polkinghorne 1988, 1991, 1996). Many such individuals can be found contributing to journals such as Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science. For just one compilation of contemporary Christian scientists, see Mott (1991). There are comparable compilations of Hindu, Islamic, Mormon, and Judaic scientists. There may even be compilations of Scientologist scientists, and Christian Science scientists. These lists are relevant to the question of the psychological compatibility between scientific and religious beliefs, but not their philosophical or rational compatibility.

  63. See extensive discussion and bibliography in Martin (1991).

  64. These educational goals should not just be the responsibility of the science teacher; they should be realised by informed and competent curricula coordination across the subjects of science, philosophy and history.

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    Michael R. Matthews

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Matthews, M.R. Teaching the Philosophical and Worldview Components of Science. Sci & Educ 18, 697–728 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-007-9132-4

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