Chapter 11- Flashcards

1
Q

What is Science?

A
  • Science seeks to aquire knowledge and understanding of reality, through the formulation, testing, and evaluation of theories
    ~ A systematic and careful way of searching for truth
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2
Q

Science is NOT

A
  • Technology
    ~ Technology produces things
  • Ideology
    ~ Science is not any particular worldview
  • Scientism
    ~ Science is not the only way to access truth (though it is an extremely reliable way of acquiring knowledge about the empirical world)
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3
Q

The Scientific Method

A
  • Identify the problem or pose a question
  • Devise a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon or event
  • Derive a test implication or prediction: Ask, “if this hypothesis were true, what consequences would follow?”
  • Preform the test
  • Accept or reject the hypothesis
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4
Q

Identify the problem or pose a question

A
  • Example
    ~ What causes X?
    ~ Why did Y happen?
    ~ Does aspirin lower the risk of stroke?
    ~ How do whales navigate over long distances?
    ~ How did early hominids communicate with each other?
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5
Q

Devise a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon or event

A
  • The hypothesis guides the research, suggesting what kinds of observations or data would be relevant to the problem at hand
  • The creation of hypotheses is guided by the criteria of adequacy
  • Consideration of alternative hypotheses (not just flavored ones)
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6
Q

Derive a test implication or prediction: Ask, “if this hypothesis were true, what consequences would follow?”

A
- Dis-confirming
~ If H, then C.
~ Not C
~ Therefore, not C
- Denying the consequent
- Confirming (though not establishing)
~ If H, then C
~ C
~ therefore H
- Affirming the consequent
~ "Induction by Confirmation"
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7
Q

Preform the test

A
  • Usually involves the testing of many consequences of several competing hypotheses
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8
Q

Accepting or rejecting the hypothesis

A
  • Ideally, one hypothesis remains, with considerable evidence in its favor
  • Hypotheses are not conclusively confirmed or confuted
  • This doesn’t mean that all hypothesis are equally acceptable
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9
Q

Judging Scientific Theories

A
  • Testability
  • Fruitfulness
  • Scope
  • Simplicity
  • Conservatism
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10
Q

Testability

A
  • Whether there’s some way to determine if a theory is true or false
  • All theories that scientists take seriously are testable
  • A theory is testable if it predicts something other than what it was introduced to explain
  • If a theory is untestable (if there is no possible procedure for checking its truth), then it is not useful as an explanatory theory
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11
Q

Fruitfulness

A
  • The number of novel predictions unknown phenomena
  • They yield new insights and can open up new areas of research
  • More fruitful theories are more likely to be true
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12
Q

Scope

A
  • The amount of diverse phenomena explained
  • A theory that can explain more things is better than a theory that can only explain few things
  • The more a theory explains or predicts, the more it extends out understanding
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13
Q

Simplicity

A
  • The number of assumptions made
  • The best theory is the simplest ( make fewer assumptions)
  • The theory making the fewest assumptions is the least likely to be false because there are fewer ways for it to go wrong
    ~ Requires less evidence to support it
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14
Q

Conservatism

A
  • How well a theory fits with existing knowledge
  • The best theory is the one that fits best with our established beliefs
  • While it is possible for the new theory that conflicts with our established understanding to be true, we need good reasons to accept the new theory and dismiss the old one
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15
Q

Theory

A

hypothesis that tries to explain why something is the way it is, why something is the case, or why something happened

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16
Q

Mill’s Methods of Induction

A
  • john Stuart Mill (1806-1873) noted several ways of evaluation causal arguments and formulated them into what are now know as “Mill’s methods”
  • These methods are used by just about everyone
  • They are the basis of great deal of scientific testing
  • Method of Agreement
  • Method of Difference
  • Joint Method of Agreement and Difference
  • Method of Concomitant Variation
  • Method of Residue
17
Q

Method of Agreement

A
  • If two or more occurrences of a phenomenon have only one factor in common, that factor is likely the cause
  • Schematic of such an argument
    ~ Factor a, b, and c are followed by E
    ~ Factors a, c, and d are followed by E
    ~ Factors b and c are followed by E
    ~ Factors c and d are followed by E
    ~ Therefore, factor c is probably the cause of E
18
Q

Method of Difference

A
  • The relevant factor present when a phenomenon occurs, and absent when the phenomenon doesn’t occur, is likely the cause
  • Here we look for factors that are points of difference among instances of the phenomenon ( rather than factors that the instances have in common)
  • Form of the argument
    ~ Instance 1: factors a, b, and c are followed by E
    ~ Instance 2: factors a and b are not followed by E
    ~ Therefore, factor c is probably the cause of E
19
Q

Joint Method of Agreement and Difference

A
  • The likely cause is the one isolated when you identify the relevant factors common to occurrences of the phenomenon and discard any of these that are present even when there are no occurrences
    Form:
    ~ Instance 1: Factors a, b, and c are followed by E
    ~ Instance 2: Factors a, b, and d are followed by E
    ~ Instance 3: Factors b and c are not followed by E
    ~ Instance 4: Factors b and d are not followed by E
    ~ Therefore, factor a likely the cause of E
20
Q

Method of Concomitant Variation

A
  • When two events are correlated (when one varies in close connection with the other) they are probably causally related
  • Form:
    ~ Instance 1: Factors a, b, and c are correlated with E
    ~ Instance 2: Factors a, b, and increased-c are correlated with increased E
    ~ Instance 3: Factors a,b, and decreased-c are correlated with decreased E
    ~ Therefore, factor c is likely causally connected with E
21
Q

Method of Residue

A
  • When we have partial knowledge of the causal relationships of factors to phenomena, the factors that have not been identified as causes may be the causes of the as-yet unexplained phenomena
  • Form:
    ~ Factors a, b, and c occur together with phenomena X, Y, and Z
    ~ b is known to be the cause of Y
    ~ c is known to be the cause of Z
    ~ therefore, a is likely the cause of X
22
Q

Explanatory Adequacy

A
  • The hypothesis explains all instances of the phenomenon, and that it does so with as much precision as possible
23
Q

Rival Hypothesis

A
  • Each purport to explain some observations without either one explaining all of them; that is, both hypotheses are restricted in scope