Terms for Final Flashcards
How do pseudo-scientific hypotheses protect themselves from being testable?
Vagueness—If a statement is sufficiently vague, it will be impossible to verify or falsify it.
Ad hoc exceptions—a hypothesis that makes exceptions every time it meets counter examples.
Pseudo-science
Pseudo-science is fake science.
What distinguishes a pseudo-science is that it claims the status of science while lacking its substance.
Scientific method
Also known as Inductivism. What distinguishes science from non-science is a distinctive method.
Controllability
Varying only one factor at a time to determine its effect.
Measurability
Measuring the relevant variables. This adds precision and objectivity to the experiment.
Repeatability
The ability for others to repeat the experiment and confirm the results. This ensures objectivity.
Observation
Making observations and recording data during an experiment.
Problems with observation
Selectivity
Expectations
Expert seeing
The observer effect
Hypothesis
An idea or guess that tries to explain the observations.
Problems with hypothesis
Confirmation bias
Background assumptions
Argumentum ad ignorantiam
Under-determination
Prediction
How a phenomenon should “act” according to the hypothesis.
Law
A statement based on repeated experimental observations that describes some aspects of the universe
However, there is the problem of induction.
Theory
Explains and unifies various laws in terms of some underlying principles. A good theory explains why the laws are the way they are and provides a focus for further research.
Confirmation bias
People tend to look for evidence that confirms their beliefs and overlook evidence that goes against them.
Falsification
A theory that explains everything explains nothing.
According to Popper, there’s no such thing as a true statement, and scientists should spend their time trying to prove their hypotheses are false.
Any theory that resists our best efforts to falsify it should be provisionally accepted as the best we have for the time being.
Paradigm
An overarching theory shared by a community of scientists, which is used to makes sense of some aspect of reality.
Propaganda
Information used to persuade, not inform.
Intentionally one-sided
Often trades on emotion (hate, fear, pride)
Political purpose that justifies distorting the truth
Primary and secondary sources
Primary source—one that is written by someone who was there at the time.
The ‘bedrock of history’
Secondary source—a later, second-hand account of what happened.
To have any authority they must ultimately be grounded in primary sources.
Problems with primary sources
Fallible eyewitness
Social bias
Deliberate manipulation
Bias
Prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.
Reasons why someone might think that history is more prone to bias than the natural sciences:
Topic choice bias
Confirmation bias
National bias
Economic determinism theory
This theory claims that history is determined by economic factors, and its most famous exponent was Karl Marx.
According to Marx, it is not great individuals but rather technological and economic factors that are the engines for historical change.
Great person theory
This theory holds that the course of history is mainly determined by great individuals.
Collingwood drew particular attention to the importance of empathy and trying to understand a situation in the same way that a historical agent would have understood it.
Chance theory
Accidents/small things
Chance events
Some people concluded that there is no meaning in history and it is governed by chance.
River of history theory (Hegel)
You are floating down a portion of the river of history.
You can make limited choices, but ultimately the River Defines Who You Are.
As we float down the river, things will be resolved through Dialectic (spiral movement).
Thesis & Antithesis
Struggle, debate
Eventually come together
Synthesis
