lecture 02: scientific method and the philosophy of science I

Question 1

what is science

Answer 1

knowledge, process of gaining knowledge about the natural world

Question 2

what is the scientific method

Answer 2

the use of experiments and observations to explain something in nature

Question 3

hypothesis

Answer 3

proposed (tentative) explanation of a phenomenon that can be tested (normally based on a prediction that follows from the hypothesis )

Question 4

theory

Answer 4

widely accepted and tested (confirmed) explanation for a phenomena

Question 5

law

Answer 5

description of how nature behaves under certain conditions (often mathematical formula, rare in natural sciences)

Question 6

edward o wilson

Answer 6

hoolism, complexity and emergence

Question 7

holism

Answer 7

complex systems approach to science, uses ‘top-down’ approach by studying higher organizational levels

Question 8

emergence

Answer 8

properties of groups that cant be entirely explained by their individual components across scales, interaction of things that form a new relationship

Question 9

francis crick

Answer 9

proposed we can ‘explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry’ (total reductionism)

Question 10

reductionism

Answer 10

describes systems by dividing them into smaller units to understand them through their elemental properties, focuses on ‘bottom-up’ approach to understand phenomena “levels” of explanation

Question 11

normative science (quanitative)

Answer 11

information is developed or interpreted on an assumed, unstated, preference for a particular outcome or policy (advocacy science)

Question 12

science domains

Answer 12

ethics, philosophy, aesthetics

Question 13

descriptive science (qualitative)

Answer 13

regular or traditional science, does not presuppose and outcome or policy preference, understanding how nature works without a priori application and uses experiments and deducation

Question 14

karl popper

Answer 14

falsification of hypothesis (disproven by experimental results) single hypothesis is disproved by confrontation with data

Question 15

thomas kuhn

Answer 15

paradigms, normal science, scientific revolutions
single hypothesis used until there is so much contradictory information that it is ‘overthrown’ by a better hypothesis

Question 16

micheal polanyi

Answer 16

multiple views of the world allowed according to the different opinions of scientists; confrontation between these views and data judged on: plausibility, value and interest

Question 17

imre lakatos

Answer 17

confrontation of multiple hypotheses with data as arbitrator

Question 18

meta-analysis

Answer 18

goal is to combine and analyze several studies to obtain a finding that is beyond the single effects found by analyzing data and studies seperately

Question 19

replicable

Answer 19

to repeat a study using methods equivalent to the originals and obtain similar results, sometimes applied to situations in which study findings are backed up by the results of another study