What Is Science Flashcards
What are the 2 definitions of science?
-Any field of study, eg management science, social science
-the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology)
Methods used by them
The body of knowledge derived by these methods
Who said the quote
“If we didn’t know what we were doing, why would we call it research?”
Albert Einstein
How is science at the edge different from established science?
Less certain, much more exciting, a journey to the unknown
What are the origins of science, how did Ancient Greek philosophers think the world could be understood?
Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Ancient Greek philosophers believed the world could be understood by logic and reason
Hippocrates famous theory?
Theory of 4 humors
- blood
- black bile
- yellow bile
- phlegm
Disease caused by imbalance of humors. Many conditions can be treated by bleeding to rebalance the humors
What did Aristotle do that was more correct than hippocrateS?
Also included observation of real world as part of styrax philosophy
Meaning of induction
Interference of generalised conclusion from particular instances
What type of induction is more powerful to a philosopher and then to a scientist?
To a philosopher logical deduction is more powerful than just induction.
- a conclusion by logical deduction is certain
- a conclusion by inductive argument is merely probable, based upon the evidence given
To scientist
Logical deduction is unreliable
Conclusions based on careful study is more reliable
Example of induction
Law of conservation of energy
Who created the word refutation and what does it mean?
A scientific theory is a theory that makes predictions that are capable of refutation.
Predictions which can be tested and potentially proved wrong (refutation).
What does scientific confidence require ?
Requires multiple lines of evidence and a believable theory to make sense of the evidence
Who discovered that puerperal fever was being spread by doctors because of lack of hand washing ?
Oliver Wendell Holmes and Ignaz semmelweiss
Who invented paradigm and what does it mean?
Thomas Kuhn used the word paradigm to mean ‘a body of agreed knowledge, and ways of working’
Dictionary definition is: an ideal model or example
Our current paradigm
Medical microbiology
What does relativism mean?
The concept that different ways of looking at things are equally valid (as internally self-consistent)
