Lesson 8 –
Science Needs Interpretation

Science is widely admired as a body of knowledge that seems objective and beyond dispute. The statements, principles, and laws set forth in science textbooks seem clear, they are backed up by evidence, and the answers to all of the exercises are in the back of the book. But working scientists know well that beyond the first impression given by science textbooks, the principles, facts, and laws of science require interpretation. Everyone agrees that the Bible requires interpretation, and so too does science. Without an awareness of the need for interpretation of scientific claims, someone might all too easily overinterpret them without being aware of it and naively identify a specific philosophical position with science.

Course Reading

The Physicist’s Conception of Nature, 8-12 | Werner Heisenberg

Mechanisms in Science | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Excerpt from The Physicist’s Conception of Nature by Werner Heisenberg:

“Because, from the eighteenth century onwards, chemical experiments could be classified and explained by the atomic hypothesis of ancient times, it appeared reasonable to take over the view of ancient philosophy that atoms were the real substance, the immutable building-stones of matter. Just as in the philosophy of Democritus, the differences in material qualities were considered to be merely apparent; smell or colour, temperature or viscosity, were not actual qualities of matter but resulted from the interaction of matter and our senses, and had to be explained by the arrangements and movements of atoms, and by the effect of these arrangements on our minds. It is thus that there arose the over-simplified world-view of nineteenth-century materialism: atoms move in space and time as the real and immutable substances, and it is their arrangement and motion that create the colourful phenomena of the world of our senses.”

Course Listening

Aristotle against Epicurus: Atoms, Particles & Elements in Thomism | Prof. Matthew Gaetano

Related videos from earlier in the series

This episode was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this project are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.