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Alan Chalmers citations

Alan Francis Chalmers, né en 1939 en Angleterre, est un historien des sciences et un épistémologue. Il s'est établi en Australie à l'Université . Puis, il a étudié la physique dans les Universités de Bristol, Manchester et Londres. Physicien à l'origine, il a été l'élève de Imre Lakatos et donc formé dans la tradition poppérienne.

Il est l'auteur de What is this thing called Science ? , publié en 1976, deux fois réédité, remanié et complété — 3e édition : 1999.

Il y passe en revue des critères utilisés dans l'histoire pour définir la science :



l'observation des faits, opposée à l'expérience — Poincaré avait aussi une réflexion sur le choix des faits intéressants.

la réfutabilité

les paradigmes

l'objectivité

le réalisme et l'anti-réalisme

les théories bayésiennes

le progrèsIl a écrit ultérieurement Science and its Fabrication , publié en 1990.

Dans ce deuxième livre, il rejette comme axiomatisation de la connaissance aussi bien le positivisme de Karl Popper que le relativisme de Paul Feyerabend, le premier parce qu'il contredit l'histoire des sciences, le second car il est incapable de démarquer sciences et pseudo-science.

Comme alternative, il propose de:



définir les sciences comme description uniforme du monde,

et afin de mesurer leur succès, de mesurer comment les sciences atteignent ce but.Il reste lui-même sur le progrès , mais sans voir le cercle du point de vue de la théorie marxiste de l'histoire : le progrès est le moteur de l'histoire, et la science en est une superstructure.

Tout comme Popper, il s'est intéressé aux critères de démarcation entre science et pseudo-science. Wikipedia  

✵ 1939
Alan Chalmers: 17 citations0 J'aime

Alan Chalmers: Citations en anglais

“Two normal observers viewing the same object from the same place under the same physical circumstances do not necessarily have identical visual experiences, even though the images on their respective retinas may be virtually identical.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 1, Science as knowledge derived form the facts of experience, p. 5.

“The experienced and skilled observer does not have perceptual experiences identical to those of the untrained novice when the two confront the same situation.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 1, Science as knowledge derived form the facts of experience, p. 8.

“The aim of science is to falsify theories and to replace them by better theories, theories that demonstrate a greater ability to withstand tests.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 6, Sophisticated falsification, novel predictions and the growth of science, p. 83

“Empiricism and positivism share the common view that scientific knowledge should in some way be derived from the facts arrived at by observation.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 1, Science as knowledge derived form the facts of experience, p. 3.

“Many kinds of processes are at work in the world around us, and they are all superimposed on, and interact with, each other in complicated ways.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 3, Experiment, p. 28.

“The greater the number of conjectured theories that are confronted by the realities of the world, and the more speculative those conjectures are, the greater will be the chances of major advances in science.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 5, Introducing falsification, p. 67.

“The confirmations of novel predictions resulting from bold conjectures are very important in the falsificationist account of the growth of science.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 6, Sophisticated falsification, novel predictions and the growth of science, p. 81.

“A far as perception is concerned, the only things with which an observer has direct and immediate contact are his or her experiences.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 1, Science as knowledge derived form the facts of experience, p. 8.

“Science progresses by trial and error, by conjectures and refutations. Only the fittest theories survive.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 5, Introducing falsification, p. 60.

“Which facts are relevant and which are not relevant to a science will be relative to the current state of development of that science.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 3, Experiment, p. 27.

“Science describes not just the observable world but also the world that lies beyond the appearances. This is a rough statement of realism with respect to science.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 15, Realism and anti-realism, p. 226.

“No matter which comes first, the facts or the theory, the question to be addressed is the extent to which the theory is borne out by the facts. The strongest possible claim would be that the theory can be logically derived from the facts. That is, given the facts, the theory can be proven as a consequence of them. This strong claim cannot be substantiated.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 4, Deriving theories from facts: induction, p. 41.

“A mature science is governed by a single paradigm.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 8, Theories as structures I: Kuhn's paradigms, p. 109.

“Science is widely esteemed. Apparently it is a widely held belief that there is something special about science and its methods.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Introduction, p. xix.
What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999)

“It should be no news to anyone that the perceptual judgements of individuals can be unreliable for a range of reasons. The challenge, in science, is to arrange the observable situation in such a way that the reliance on such judgements is minimised if not eliminated.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 2, Observation as practical intervention, p. 21.

“Scientists are typically good at making scientific progress, but not particularly good at articulating what the progress consists of.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 16, Epilogue, p. 252.

“Establishing by observation that there is just one black swan falsifies "all swans are white". This is an unexceptional and undeniable point. However, using it as grounds to support a falsificationist philosophy of science is not as straightforward as it might seem.”

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Alan Chalmers livre What Is This Thing Called Science?

Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 7, The limitations of falsificationism, p. 87.

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