Scientific Methodology and Philosophical Epistemology

Formal Science: Deduction and Induction

Axioms: Principles unprovable within the system.
Formation and Transformation Rules: Used to extract new statements valid for extending the system.
Theorems: Statements obtained deductively from axioms.

Protocol Statements: Expressed phenomena of the world likely to be tested empirically.
Laws: Universal statements about the relation of certain phenomena in a regular and unvarying way.
Theory: Universal statements from which all the laws of a particular science can be drawn.

Characterized by less predictability, less generalization, and value neutrality.

Originating in Aristotle, focusing on:

The Senses: Reality is multiple and changing; it conceives something permanent in reality through intuition and reasoning.
Understanding: Captures what things are and what makes them; understanding that there is something permanent that acts as a support for changes.

Associated with Hume, Berkeley, and Locke:

Reason: Truths of reason; we can discover their truth or falsity without recourse to experience.
Experience: Truth in fact; non-formal sciences consist of statements whose truth is checked through experience.

Philosophy aims to give meaning to life, reflect on things, and progress in knowledge and critique.

Dogmatism: The naive attitude of being sure of knowing.
Skepticism: Considering it impossible to obtain reliable knowledge due to a lack of sufficient justification.
Subjectivism and Relativism: The belief that universal truths cannot be achieved.
Pragmatism: The view that truth is what is useful.
Criticism: Kantian rationalism and critical analysis.
Perspectivism: Reaching knowledge by combining different perspectives (Ortega y Gasset).

The primary criteria include authority, tradition, logical coherence, utility, and evidence.