Part 2: Scientific inference

Question 1

Inference:

Answer 1

An act or a process of reaching a conclusion from a set of premises, which can express, for instance, known facts or evidence.

Question 2

Premise:

Answer 2

a statement in an argument that justifies a conclusion.

Question 3

Conclusion:

Answer 3

A statement that follows logically from premises.

Question 4

Generalization:

Answer 4

Inductive inference from a sample to a general conclusion.

Question 5

Projection:

Answer 5

Inductive inference from past samples to future samples.

Question 6

Inductive inference:

Answer 6

In an inductive inference, the premises support the conclusion but does not guarantee its truth.

Question 7

Deductive inference:

Answer 7

In a valid deductive inference, true premises necessitate the truth of the conclusion.

Question 8

Conditional claim:

Answer 8

A claim involving the logical operator “if”, for instance of the form “If A then B”.

Question 9

Modus ponens:

Answer 9

A deductive inference of the form: If A then B, A, therefore B.

Question 10

Modus tollens:

Answer 10

A deductive inference of the form: If A then B, not B, therefore not A.

Question 11

Amplicative:

Answer 11

Inferences that go beyond what is stated in the premises – in particular, inductive inferences are amplicative.

Question 12

Explicative:

Answer 12

Inferences that do not go beyond what is stated (implicitly) in the premises – in particular, deductive inferences are explicative.

Question 13

Truth preservation:

Answer 13

The conclusion must be true if the premises are true, see deductive inference.

Question 14

Fallible:

Answer 14

The conclusion can be false even if premises are true.

Question 15

Infinite regress:

Answer 15

A never ending chain of propositions being justified by other propositions which in turn are justified by other propositions and so on.

Question 16

Foundationalism:

Answer 16

Propositions are justified by being inferred from foundational premises which do not need additional justification, for instance necessarily true premises.

Question 17

Coherentism:

Answer 17

Propositions are justified by being compatible with a coherent set of propositions, where each proposition in the set is compatible with every other proposition in the set.

Question 18

Falsification:

Answer 18

Rejecting a hypothesis as a result of an empirical test.

Question 19

Confirmation:

Answer 19

Increasing the confidence in a hypothesis as a result of an empirical test.

Question 20

Hypothesis:

Answer 20

A proposition that can be true or false but is not necessarily true or false, and that preferably either has some generality or is about something not directly observable.

Question 21

Tautology:

Answer 21

A proposition which is necessarily true or false.

Question 22

The 5 steps of the Hypothetico-Deductive method?

Answer 22

1. Formulate a hypothesis H
2. Deduce observable consequences {Ci} from H.
3. Test whether {Ci} is true or not.
4. If {Ci} is false, infer that H is false.
5. If {Ci} is true, increase confidence in H

Question 23

Direct observation:

Answer 23

Observations of objects and properties that are accessible through the use of human senses.

Question 24

Operationalization:

Answer 24

A way to measure something which cannot be directly observed or that cannot be observed directly with sufficient precision, by connecting this feature with something causally connected to something that can be observed directly.

Question 25

Falsification in the context of hypothesis testing:

Answer 25

To prove a hypothesis false.

Question 26

Falsification in the context of ethics:

Answer 26

Unethical behaviour of changing data to suit your opinion or target.

Question 27

Asymmetry between falsification and confirmation:

Answer 27

No amount of confirming observations can deductively confirm the hypothesis, but one falsifying observation can deductively falsify the hypothesis.

Question 28

Falsificationism:

Answer 28

The view that science should proceed only through valid falsification, and never use confirmation.

Question 29

Falsifiable:

Answer 29

A hypothesis is falsifiable if it is possible to show that it is false, even if it has not yet been shown to be false.

Question 30

Demarcation of science:

Answer 30

Distinguishing science from non-science by providing criteria for counting something as science.

Question 31

Corroboration:

Answer 31

A hypothesis is corroborated if it has withstood multiple falsification attempts.

Question 32

Auxiliary hypothesis:

Answer 32

A hypothesis used to test another hypothesis, but which one does not intend to test, for instance background assumptions necessary to infer the empirical conclusion.

Question 33

Conjunction:

Answer 33

Two propositions joined by the logical operator AND. The conjunction is true if and only if both propositions are true

Question 34

Duhem-Quine thesis:

Answer 34

No hypothesis can be tested without the use of auxiliary hypotheses.

Question 35

Ad hoc:

Answer 35

The modification of a claim is ad hoc if (i) the claim has previously been falsified, (ii) the modification saves the claim from this falsification and (iii) it makes the claim less falsifiable – i.e. it does not allow deriving any new testable consequences.

Question 36

Frequentism:

Answer 36

Probabilities are frequencies of repeatable observable events.

Question 37

Severe test:

Answer 37

A hypothesis test is a severe test if the probability to observe a consequence would be low if the hypothesis were false.

Question 38

Under-determination:

Answer 38

An inference is underdetermined if there are multiple conclusion that would be equally supported by the premises.