Chapter 1 Flashcards
Describe the method of tenacity
Way of knowing.
Holding on to ideas or beliefs because they have been accepted as facts for a long time or because of SUPERSTITION.
- e.g., common sense, folk wisdom, etc.
- e.g., “you cannot teach a dog new tricks” is accepted as true
Describe the method of intuition
Way of knowing.
Information is accepted as true because it “feels right.”
Relies on a person’s hunches and instinct to answer questions.
e.g., “what should we do for dinner?” “I feel like…”
Describe the method of authority
Way of knowing.
a person finds answers by seeking out an authority on the subject.
e.g., Google, books, profs, physicians, etc.
Problem with method of authority
- could be biased (e.g., two different experts in a field have a different explanation for the bad behaviour of a child)
- Could be subjective opinion of the authority in question (e.g., one movie review expert says it’s good and another says it’s bad)
- People often don’t seek second opinion and choose to believe what the authority has said
Describe the rational method
Way of knowing.
- Also known as rationalism
- Seek answers by logical reasoning
- start with a set of known facts or assumptions and use logic to reach a conclusion or answer
What is a premise statement?
- 1st two sentences in an ARGUMENT (rational method)
- fact or assumption that is known or assumed to be true
What is an argument?
a set of premise statements that are logically combined to yield a conclusion.
premise statement + premise statement + … = argument
what is an issue with the rational method?
A person must come in with no pre-existing worldviews.
Describe the Empirical Method
Way of knowing.
- Also known as empiricism
- attempts to answer questions by direct observation or personal experience.
Issue with using the empirical method:
- we can’t always trust/believe what we see
- subject to mis-perception or misinterpretation
- could be dangerous (e.g., try the mushrooms to see if they’re poisonous rather than using authority method to find out) or time-consuming
List the steps of the scientific method
- make an observation
- Think of a question
- Form a hypothesis
- Make a prediction
- Gather data (6. evaluate hypothesis, make new prediction)
- Develop a general theory
REPEAT
What is induction?
- process of generalization
- inductive reasoning = reaching a general conclusion based on a few specific examples.
e. g., tasting three green apples and they are all sour and thus concluding that all green apples are sour.
What are variables?
-characteristics or conditions that change or have different values for different individuals
What is deduction?
use a general statement as the basis for reaching a conclusion about specific examples
induction vs deduction?
induction: uses specific examples to generate general conclusions
deductions: uses general conclusions to generate SPECIFIC PREDICTIONS