Chapter 22 Quiz: Science, Religion, and the Boundaries of Knowledge

Part A: Multiple Choice (10 questions)

Instructions: Choose the best answer for each question.

1. The "demarcation problem" in philosophy of science refers to:

a) The difficulty of measuring microscopic phenomena
b) The challenge of distinguishing science from non-science, pseudoscience, or metaphysics
c) The problem of determining the boundaries of national scientific funding
d) The question of how different scientific disciplines relate to each other

2. The logical positivists' verification principle held that a statement is meaningful only if:

a) It has been confirmed by at least three independent studies
b) It can be empirically verified or is analytically true
c) It is accepted by the scientific community
d) It can be understood by a non-specialist

3. The most significant self-referential problem with the verification principle is:

a) It cannot be applied to mathematical claims
b) It requires empirical verification to be meaningful, but is itself neither empirically verifiable nor analytically true
c) It was never actually articulated in writing by the Vienna Circle
d) It treats religious claims as false rather than meaningless

4. According to Popper's falsificationism, what distinguishes scientific claims from non-scientific ones?

a) Scientific claims have been verified by experiment
b) Scientific claims are made by credentialed scientists
c) Scientific claims are in principle falsifiable — they make predictions that could be shown false by evidence
d) Scientific claims are accepted by a majority of researchers in the relevant field

5. The Duhem-Quine problem challenges Popper's falsificationism by noting that:

a) Scientists are psychologically incapable of abandoning their theories
b) Scientific theories are always tested alongside auxiliary hypotheses, so a negative result doesn't uniquely falsify the core theory
c) Many important scientific theories have never been subjected to empirical test
d) Falsifiability is impossible to determine before experiments are run

6. According to Kuhn, "normal science" refers to:

a) Science conducted according to standard lab protocols
b) Puzzle-solving within an accepted paradigm — the day-to-day work of extending and applying an established framework
c) The most widely practiced forms of scientific inquiry
d) Scientific work that does not challenge existing theories

7. Kuhn's concept of "incommensurability" refers to:

a) The inability to measure certain scientific quantities precisely
b) The fact that some scientific theories cannot be expressed mathematically
c) The difficulty of fully translating between different scientific paradigms, whose concepts have different meanings
d) The claim that competing scientific theories cannot both be confirmed by evidence

8. Stephen Jay Gould's NOMA (Non-Overlapping Magisteria) model holds that:

a) Science and religion are fundamentally in conflict and cannot be reconciled
b) Science and religion address different domains — fact/theory vs. meaning/moral value — and do not genuinely conflict
c) Science and religion should be integrated into a single unified framework
d) Religious claims should be evaluated using scientific methods

9. Alvin Plantinga's "reformed epistemology" argues that belief in God:

a) Can only be rationally held if one has found compelling arguments for God's existence
b) Is irrational in the absence of empirical evidence
c) Can be "properly basic" — rational without requiring argumentative justification, like belief in the external world
d) Requires the same evidential standards as any other empirical claim

10. Wittgenstein's approach to religious language suggests that:

a) Religious statements are literally false because they cannot be empirically verified
b) Religious language operates within a different "language game" with its own grammar and function, not best evaluated by empirical standards
c) Religion and science use the same language but reach different conclusions
d) Religious language is metaphorical and therefore has no cognitive content

Part B: Short Answer (5 questions)

Instructions: Answer each question in 3–5 complete sentences.

11. Explain the "Duhem-Quine problem" and describe one specific way it complicates Popper's falsificationism. Give an example of a scientific situation where a negative experimental result might not straightforwardly falsify a core theory.

12. Distinguish Kuhn's concepts of "normal science" and "scientific revolution." What is the role of "anomalies" in the transition from one to the other? Why does Kuhn think paradigm shifts cannot be purely rational events?

13. Briefly describe Barbour's four models of science-religion relations (Conflict, Independence, Dialogue, Integration). Give one objection to the NOMA model that comes from the religious side — that is, an objection that would be raised by a religious believer, not by a scientific atheist.

14. What does Hume's "is-ought gap" claim, and why does it matter for questions about what science can tell us? Give an example of a domain of human importance that science describes but cannot, by itself, prescribe the right response to.

15. The chapter argues that science "leaves open" rather than "definitively closes" certain ultimate questions. Identify two specific questions that you believe fall outside the scope of scientific inquiry and explain why. Your answer should reflect genuine philosophical reasoning, not simply a list of unanswered empirical questions.

Answer Key

Part A:

1. b — The demarcation problem is the philosophical challenge of identifying what separates science from non-science.
2. b — The verification principle requires empirical verifiability or analyticity as conditions of meaningfulness.
3. b — The self-referential problem: the verification principle cannot verify itself and is not analytically true, so by its own criterion it is meaningless.
4. c — Popper's criterion: scientific claims must be falsifiable in principle — they must make predictions that could in principle be shown false.
5. b — The Duhem-Quine problem points out that testing always involves a bundle of hypotheses; a negative result doesn't uniquely refute the core theory.
6. b — Normal science is puzzle-solving within an accepted paradigm; it is the ordinary, cumulative work of a scientific field.
7. c — Incommensurability refers to the difficulty of translating between paradigms whose key concepts have different meanings within each framework.
8. b — NOMA holds that science and religion address different magisteria and do not genuinely conflict as long as each stays within its proper domain.
9. c — Plantinga argues that theistic belief can be properly basic — rational without requiring argumentative justification, analogous to belief in the external world.
10. b — Wittgenstein's language game analysis suggests religious discourse has its own grammar and function, not reducible to empirical hypothesis.

Part B: Answers will vary. Evaluate on: accuracy to the chapter's arguments, quality of reasoning, and (for Questions 11, 14, 15) quality of the examples and application.