Nature Of Emperical data Flashcards
What are the 5 ways of knowing?
- Tenacity
- Authority
- A priori method
- Personal experience
- Emperical inquiry
What is tenacity?
The mode of accepting knowledge because one is comfortable with it and simply wants to hold onto it such as philosophy or religion
What is authority?
The mode of accepting knowledge because a person in a position of authority claims that something is true or valid
Give examples of reliance on authority?
My teacher told me 2-2 is 0
I know God loves me, the Bible says so
What is a priori method?
The mode of accepting knowledge based on a premise that people have agreed on, followed by reasoned argument
What is experience?
A way of knowing that uses personal experience as the means of deciding what is true about behavior
Give examples of reliance on priori method and what they depend on
- 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
What is Emperical?
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)
How can empirical evidence be distinguished from personal experience?
Empirical data requires systematic observation and analysis
What is “systematic” meaning?
Derived from the term “system” which refers to a whole consisting of interrelated/ interconnected parts
What is a system?
Anything that consists of interrelated parts may be treated as a system
What are the 4 elements of systematic observation and analysis ?
- 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
What are popular misguided notions of scientific inquiry?
- science is objective
- science is unbiased
- science yields truth
What are 2 popular conceptions of objectivity?
- Considering all perspectives
2. Acting without bias
What are 2 popular notions of bias?
- as unfair treatment
- As strong interest or ability
Give the google definition of bias as unfair treatment
Google: prejudice in favor or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be
What is the Cambridge English Dictionary of bias as unfair treatment ?
The action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgement
What is the definition of bias as unfair treatment
A tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others that usually results in treating some people unfairly
What is the Meriam-Webster definition of bias as strong interest or ability?
A strong interest in something or ability to do something
What was Einstein’s perspective on research?
“If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called ‘research,’ would it ?”
Who is Murray Gell-Mann
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
Give a synopsis of the success of Murray-Gell-Mann
- 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”
What is the cardinal Principle of Empirical Inquiry?
The process of science are replicable; it’s results are verifiable to a degree and open to falsification
What are the alternative views of Karl Popper?
- 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
What are the features of scientific inquiry? (Propper)
- 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
What was Popper’s conclusion?
Thought when meeting a problem that we should fall in love with the problem, until death unless you find a problem you love more
What are sources of uncertainty in empirical observations?
Incomplete sensation
Sensation vs. perception
Theory of ladenness of observations
What is incomplete sensation?
We do not always sense everything in our environment
How is sensation vs. perception ?
What we perceive is not always what we sense
What is the theory ladenness of observations?
Perception is an interpretive act, requiring the use of presuppositions
-Theories are imperfect products of human action
What are whither facts?
- 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?
