Philosophy Group 2, 13th October 2026

We met to to discuss Rationalism in Science: can knowledge be attained just through rational thinking?  A general review of Rationalism in Science and how far it gets us is here  and “Critical Rationalism”, more specifically on Popper’s approach to the advance of scientific knowledge via rationalism and empiricism is here.  A central question was whether Einstein’s theories of Relativity were knowledge before they were demonstrated through experiment, or were they then only justified beliefs?  We discussed whether mathematics is (in Kantian terms) analytic or synthetic.  Einstein said of maths that “it is certain when detached from reality but uncertain when applied to it.”  OK, so Relativity wasn’t knowledge until demonstrated.  

We also discussed the Core meeting on AI held on the previous day.  It explained the sort of things AI can do and encouraged its use, pointing out some issues and reason to be cautious.  We were concerned about the ethical aspects of AI and expressed the need for responsibility by user and provider.  Whether this can be achieved or even legislated for appears dubious.  We were also concerned about the scale of the electrical power requirement of AI and also its impact on the environment (see below) and also on the power generation and distribution network in the UK.