L3 - Orthodoxy and Oppression Flashcards

1
Q

Who Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) known for?

What was his major piece of work?

A

A Polish Astronomer.

On Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (1530)

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2
Q

What was Copernicus’s Cathedral and what position did he hold

A

Frauenberg Cathedral in Poland

He held the position of canon in the church

he is buried there

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3
Q

What did ‘On The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies’ (1530) propose?

A

Heliocentrism (The Copernican Theory)

(Earth rotates on its axis once a day, and around the sun once a year)

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4
Q

Why was the Copernican Theory rejected at the beginning?

A

Because it went against the orthodoxy of the Catholic church who believed everything revolved around the earth.

It was placed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum for 3 centuries.

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5
Q

Who was Johannes Kepler (1609)? Why was he significant?

A

A man of science, Kepler was the first individual to propose the first ‘fundamental law of nature’. One that is universal, verifiable and precise.

One law that is applicable across all of time and space.

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6
Q

What was Kepler’s 3 laws of planetary movements?

A

(1) All planets move about the Sun in elliptical orbits, having the Sun as one of the foci.
(2) A radius vector joining any planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal lengths of time.
(3) The squares of the sidereal periods (of revolution) of the planets are directly proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun.

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7
Q

What is perhaps the key defining features of science?

A

The ability to generate universal laws.

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8
Q

What happened to Kepler after he proposed his ideas?

What does this show us?

A

His mother was arrested for witchcraft by the Catholic Church who was threatening him into silence.

It was incredibly dangerous to threaten the agreed upon preexisting believed knowledge claims.

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9
Q

Who was Galileo (1564-1642)? What is he known for?

A

Astronomer, confirmed the observational proof of Copernicus theory (in 1610) that the earth moved around the sun.

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10
Q

What happened to Galileo after teaching Copernican theory?

A

He was brought to trial for heresy and while he was not sentenced to death he was sworn to silence and to denounce Copernican theory and put under strict house arrest until his death.

Galileo was only forgiven by the Catholic Church 350 years later in 1992

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11
Q

How did Peer Review Emerge?

A

After WW2 there was a massive growth in the Universities.

The Universities realised that the prestige of the universities is not based on the teaching skills of staff but on their research reputation.

Teaching was second place, research was primary.

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12
Q

Where does the phrase ‘publish or perish’ come from?

A

Universities who say that if you do not publish any research you will lose your tenure (finances, career, reputation)

(even if you are a phenomenal teacher)

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13
Q

What is the main way for you as a researcher to get funded at universities?

Why is this potentially a problem?

A

You need to have published previous research.

There is a treadmill effect where you need to constantly be churning out research to stay afloat (no matter quality).

Huge incentives to keep publishing.

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14
Q

How much has the amount of research papers increased by in the last 50 years?

A

By a factor of over 1000

For every paper 50 years ago there is 1000 or more today

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15
Q

What are Impact Factors? (IF)

A

They are a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year.

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16
Q

Why are Impact Factors relevant?

A

Because it is important for your credentials as a scientist to get published in a high impact journal so these journals get quite a lot of power.

17
Q

What have recent critics been saying of peer review and journals?

A

That the peer review process is enabling political gatekeeping in these journals.

That peer review is protecting Orthodoxy

(conformity to established doctrine)

18
Q

Why do a significant number of Nobel Prize-winning scientific papers originally get rejected by high IF journals?

A

Goes against Orthodoxy

All great advancements of science, by definition, reduce the prestige of the presiding experts in the field.

Human personal motivations guarding the progress of science.

19
Q

Who was Isaac Newton (1642-1727)?

What was his first laws?

A

British Physicist, Mathematician, Parliamentarian.

When to Cambridge University (when all members had to be priests of the Catholic Church).

Invented gravity theory, laws of motion, calculus and more.

Created the Law of Universal Gravitation

20
Q

What did Newton mean when he said: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”?

A

That if he was able to conclude more about the universe than anyone before him, it was because he was basing his theories on the preceding work and achievements of people before him.

Science advances by the steady accumulation of facts.

21
Q

What were Francis Bacons 3 words he used to describe the fundamental principles of Science?

A

Observation

Experimentation

Induction

22
Q

What does empirical mean?

A

Based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.

23
Q

What is the process of induction (inductive reasoning)?

A

Data gained from observation and experiment could be used to infer general laws of nature by the process known as induction.

Particular, limited observations are made in an experiment. These limited observations provide a basis for making inferences regarding all instances of a particular phenomenon.

24
Q

What is the ‘received view of science’?

(Traditional View)

A

A position in the philosophy of science that identifies a scientific theory with a set of propositions which are considered to be linguistic objects, such as axioms

‘Storybook version of science that is a form of advertising that builds the status of science, doesn’t necessarily coincides with the way science is done’