Chapters 1-4 Flashcards
Difference deductive and inductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning: top-down
inductive reasoning: bottum-up
Inductive reasoning
if the premise is true, they support the conclusion but do not garantee its truth
Deductive reasoning
If the premise is true, the conclusion must be true as well
Example of deductive reasoning
- all swans are birds
- all birds are animals
- therfore, all swans are animals
main advantagee of deductive arguments over inductive arguments
deductive arguments can never introduce new errors + they can be known to be true based on their form alone (not content)
characteristics of a scientific law
mathematical equiation,
concise and simple
universal in scope
What is the problem with scientific laws
Very general, we can never observe all cases
How can the problems in scientific laws be addressed
by using ways of reasoning in science that are ampliative (versterkend) and that add to what is known
What is necessity view of law?
laws express not only what is the case but also what must be the case.
laws describe the necessary relationship between entities, properties, events
what is regularity view of law?
laws of nature simply describe what happens to be the case
laws describe regularities and patterns observed in nature
what are the problems of induction
skeptical: why do we expect the future to be like the past?
practical problems: questions about uniformity of data, repressentiveness of data rights for generalization
what is the highest form of knowledge in the humanities?
intimate knowledge of the particulars
what are the 3 different types of knowledge
knowledge by acquaintance,
Practical knowledge
propositional knowledge
what is propositional knowlegde
asserts that a certain proposition or claim is true
for example, if Susan knows that Alyssa is a musician, she has knowledge of the proposition that Alyssa is a musician
what is the meaning of analyzing a concept
to provide precise criteria for when that concept applies
what are the 3 conditions for someone to know a proposition
they believe it,
they are justified in believing it,
it is true
what is belief in the context of knowledge analysis
belief in this context refers to wheter someone accepts a proposition as true or not
What is the puzzle of justification
when someone is justified in believing A on the basis of B, they need to be justified in believing B supports A
what is justification in the context of knowledge analysis
justification refers to wheter someone has good reason to believe a proposition
what is the role of trust in science
trust is fundamental attitute that allows scientific progress
What two ingredients does every truth have
- language
- the world
what is the weakness of the nomothethic approach
it can erase specificity of outcomes
can be reductive, mechanistic and positivistic
what is the nomothetic approach
identifies regularities, formulates laws and generalizations
What is the nomothetic approach mostly associated with
natural science
what is the weakness of the idiographic approach
can be blind to general factors,
leads to large collections of insights rather than systematic knowledge
what is the idiographic approach
focussed on understanding the characteristic and meaning of unique occurences,
Yields detail sensitive knowledge
what is the idiographic approach mostly assiocated with?
humanities
what is the focus of the natural science
universals and regularities
what is the tension between the nomothetic approach and idiographic approach in social science?
certain disciplines skew towards one side but there is always desire to balance the two
what is the focus of the humanities
historical human actors
What is Carl Hempel’s deductive nomological model?
Law 1
Condition 1,
Therefore, Explenandum
What is the problem with Hempel’s DN model?
The DN model seems to be unable to capture explanatory asymmetries (doesn’t distinguish between different types of explanations)
What is causation?
Causation is a strong relationship between two variables such that if A is a cause of B, then B happened because of A (strong relationship between cause and effect)
What is causation?
Causation is a strong relationship between two variables such that if A is a cause of B, then B happened because of A.
What is the difference between correlation and causation?
Correlation refers to a relationship between two variables, while causation refers to a strong relationship between two variables such that one variable causes the other.
