Michael Strevans - Foundations & Absurdities of Science

Michael Strevens teaches philosophy of science at New York University. His work revolves around the nature of science, covering topics such as scientific explanation, complex systems, and probability.

In his book "The Knowledge Machine" he explains why science is so successful at creating knowledge and why it took so long for humans to come up with it.

In this episode, we talk about the origins of science, philosophy of science, the contributions and flaws of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, what makes science special and some odd contradictions at the core of scientific thinking.

Get Michael's book "The Knowledge Machine" here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324091088

0:00:00 Introduction

0:02:26 The origins of science

0:07:08 Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn

0:15:59 What Popper and Kuhn were missing

0:20:50 Sociology of science

0:24:56 Contributions of philosophy of science

0:31:49 Bayesian probability

0:34:15 What makes science special?

0:41:06 The irrationality of science

0:45:25 Aesthetic and theological motivations in science

0:47:50 Caloric fluid vs kinetic theory of heat

0:57:15 Creativity in science

0:59:21 The tediousness of extreme detail

1:03:56 Can science make truth claims?

1:10:39 Philosophy of quantum mechanics

1:14:56 The biggest challenge of science

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The intro song is by Lief Sjostrom, titled Peril from the album 'Impossible Parade'.