Which of the following questions is a central concern of philosophy of science?
AHow do scientists calculate experimental error?
BWhat distinguishes scientific knowledge from other forms of knowledge?
CHow should government funding for research be allocated?
DWhich scientific theories are currently most productive?
Philosophy of science asks meta-level questions about the nature, methods, and limits of scientific knowledge — not scientific practice itself. Error calculation is a scientific skill; funding is science policy; evaluating productive theories is science. What distinguishes science from non-science is a philosophical question.
Question 2 True / False
Science produces knowledge by neutrally observing the world and accumulating facts, free from theoretical assumptions.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
This is one of the central misconceptions philosophy of science corrects. Observations are theory-laden: what we look for, how we interpret what we see, and which data count as relevant are all shaped by prior theoretical commitments. Philosophers from Hanson to Kuhn have argued that there is no theory-neutral 'view from nowhere' in science.
Question 3 Short Answer
What is the demarcation problem in philosophy of science?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: The demarcation problem is the challenge of specifying what distinguishes scientific claims and disciplines from non-scientific ones — what criteria separate science from pseudoscience, metaphysics, or other ways of knowing.
This problem has occupied philosophers from Popper (who proposed falsifiability as the criterion) to Kuhn and Lakatos (who emphasized historical and sociological factors). It matters practically: courts and regulators must judge whether disciplines like intelligent design or certain therapies are scientific.