Nature Of Emperical data

Question 1

What are the 5 ways of knowing?

Answer 1

1. Tenacity
2. Authority
3. A priori method
4. Personal experience
5. Emperical inquiry

Question 2

What is tenacity?

Answer 2

The mode of accepting knowledge because one is comfortable with it and simply wants to hold onto it such as philosophy or religion

Question 3

What is authority?

Answer 3

The mode of accepting knowledge because a person in a position of authority claims that something is true or valid

Question 4

Give examples of reliance on authority?

Answer 4

My teacher told me 2-2 is 0

I know God loves me, the Bible says so

Question 5

What is a priori method?

Answer 5

The mode of accepting knowledge based on a premise that people have agreed on, followed by reasoned argument

Question 6

What is experience?

Answer 6

A way of knowing that uses personal experience as the means of deciding what is true about behavior

Question 7

Give examples of reliance on priori method and what they depend on

Answer 7

• If all men are mortals, and if Socrates is a man, then Socrates is a mortal
• if all students cheat, and Johanna is a student, the Johanna cheats

Both statements contain 2 premises and one conclusion.

Validity of each conclusion depends on the validity of the premises upon which it rests

Question 8

What is Emperical?

Answer 8

Information is empirical if it is derived via systemic use of one or more of the 5 senses(touch, taste, s,ell, sight and hearing)

Question 9

How can empirical evidence be distinguished from personal experience?

Answer 9

Empirical data requires systematic observation and analysis

Question 10

What is “systematic” meaning?

Answer 10

Derived from the term “system” which refers to a whole consisting of interrelated/ interconnected parts

Question 11

What is a system?

Answer 11

Anything that consists of interrelated parts may be treated as a system

Question 12

What are the 4 elements of systematic observation and analysis ?

Answer 12

• identification of a whole
• identification of the parts making up that whole
• identification of relationships and interconnections between and among parts
• Doing so transparently - i.e. your process is open to scrutiny by other

Note: we can empirically study a single leaf or individual - we do so by systematically observing and analyzing them

Question 13

What are popular misguided notions of scientific inquiry?

Answer 13

• science is objective
• science is unbiased
• science yields truth

Question 14

What are 2 popular conceptions of objectivity?

Answer 14

1. Considering all perspectives

2. Acting without bias

Question 15

What are 2 popular notions of bias?

Answer 15

• as unfair treatment

- As strong interest or ability

Question 16

Give the google definition of bias as unfair treatment

Answer 16

Google: prejudice in favor or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be

Question 17

What is the Cambridge English Dictionary of bias as unfair treatment ?

Answer 17

The action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgement

Question 18

What is the definition of bias as unfair treatment

Answer 18

A tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others that usually results in treating some people unfairly

Question 19

What is the Meriam-Webster definition of bias as strong interest or ability?

Answer 19

A strong interest in something or ability to do something

Question 20

What was Einstein’s perspective on research?

Answer 20

“If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called ‘research,’ would it ?”

Question 21

Who is Murray Gell-Mann

Answer 21

A professor of physics and theoretical physics, entered Yale at age 15

After receiving his B.S. there, he worked with Enrico Fermi (Fermi lab) at the University of Chicago

He obtained his PhD from MIT in 1955

Question 22

Give a synopsis of the success of Murray-Gell-Mann

Answer 22

• Discovered that the nucleus contained smaller particles which he called “quarks”
• Received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1969 for his work
• When asked about the certainty of his discovery, Gell-Mann replied: “the scientist dies the moment claims certainty”

Question 23

What is the cardinal Principle of Empirical Inquiry?

Answer 23

The process of science are replicable; it’s results are verifiable to a degree and open to falsification

Question 24

What are the alternative views of Karl Popper?

Answer 24

• Subject matter in general doesn’t exist (subject matter are administrative units, good for administrators but not students)
• there is no method of discovering scientific theory
• there is no method of ascertaining the truth of a scientific hypothesis, that is, no method of verification
• there is no method of ascertaining whether a hypothesis is ‘probable’ in the sense of a probability calculus

Question 25

What are the features of scientific inquiry? (Propper)

Answer 25

• is rational: learning by arguing (not quarreling ) with others
• Invites diversity of views: Seeks out different and opposing views: “Diversity makes critical argument fruitful”
• is criticizable and open to modifications
• is skeptical of specialists and experts
• has no faith in precision, only does the bare minimum

Question 26

What was Popper’s conclusion?

Answer 26

Thought when meeting a problem that we should fall in love with the problem, until death unless you find a problem you love more

Question 27

What are sources of uncertainty in empirical observations?

Answer 27

Incomplete sensation

Sensation vs. perception

Theory of ladenness of observations

Question 28

What is incomplete sensation?

Answer 28

We do not always sense everything in our environment

Question 29

How is sensation vs. perception ?

Answer 29

What we perceive is not always what we sense

Question 30

What is the theory ladenness of observations?

Answer 30

Perception is an interpretive act, requiring the use of presuppositions

-Theories are imperfect products of human action

Question 31

What are whither facts?

Answer 31

• if facts are based on observations
• and if there are always sources of uncertainty with our observations
• then what does that say about our facts?