Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

Cause and effect are critical to the development of scientific thought. David Hume questioned this, and suggested that it is just that certain things happen together that gives us the illusion that one thing causes another.

So the scientific endeavour is often divided between our empirical and rationalist approaches. The rationalist approach, by contrast to empiricism, begins with theory. The method can be summarised as follows:

1. Gather information about reality

through observation.

2. Put forward a theory concerning the

cause of the phenomena observed.

3. Test the theory by further

observation.

4. If the theory holds good, then accept

as probably true, if not then return to step 2.

Science puts together theories about the world, which are supposed to be ‘falsifiable’ (as explained especially by Karl Popper) or sometimes described as ‘defeasible’ — capable of being overturned. Once a theory is established, then attempts may be made to knock it down. This approach is also described as the ‘hypothetical-deductive method’. Science therefore creates a narrative, and everyone is usually very keen to hang on to narratives once they are established!

Science presents us with a picture, a story of reality that corresponds very closely to our most careful observations and experiments and has been remarkably successful in terms of

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