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science and the scientific method

What is Science?. Science =. . A set of facts and the theories that explain the facts.. Whatever's being done by institutions carrying on

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science and the scientific method

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    1. Science and the Scientific Method An Introduction for Paramedic Students

    3. Popular Fictions The goal of science is to accumulate facts Science distorts reality and can’t do justice to the fullness of human experience. Scientific knowledge is truth. Science is concerned primarily with solving practical and social problems.

    4. So then, what is Science?

    5. The Heart of the Matter

    7. Mythos

    8. Thales of Miletus The Father of Greek Science, Philosophy, and Mathematics Man is capable of understanding nature. Natural phenomena have natural explanations.

    9. Logos “The Word” An account of the facts whose truth can be demonstrated and debated

    10. Aristotle Developed “logos” into “logic” Advocated deductive reasoning as a tool for understanding nature Dominated scientific thinking for the next 2000 years

    11. Deduction Reasoning from the general to the specific “All men are mortal.” (major premise) “Socrates is a man.” (minor premise) “Therefore, Socrates is mortal.” (conclusion) Always produces correct answers if the premises are correct.

    12. The Problems of Deduction The conclusions are only as good as the premises. Because it moves from general to specific cases, deduction does not generate new knowledge.

    13. The Problem with Aristotle He didn’t advocate the use of experiments or observations to check the validity of premises. He was a pure rationalist. “Thinking about it is good enough.”

    14. Francis Bacon If you want to know how the world works, begin with the facts. Not prejudices about what the facts are. Infer general instances from specific observations. Draw conclusions about future events from past observations.

    15. Induction Reasons from the specific to the general Can generate new knowledge However, the accuracy of that new knowledge can NEVER be proven with 100% certainty

    16. Galileo If you have a theory about how a phenomenon works, test it with an experiment. During an experiment, try to control all of the variables except the one you are interested in.

    17. Isaac Newton Mathematics is the language of nature. The world of observation can be encoded into mathematical form. Mathematical forms can be decoded into new statements about reality.

    18. The Scientific Method

    20. Are about kinds of events, not any single event Show relationships between two or more kinds of events Are supported by a large amount of experimental data Are applicable to a variety of different events

    21. An Example: Boyle’s Law In 1662, Irish chemist Robert Boyle studied the effects of pressure changes on the volume of gases.

    22. An Example: Boyle’s Law His experimental results showed that as pressure increases, the volume of a gas decreases proportionately. PV = constant So, if we decrease the volume of a container, we can predict how much the pressure of the gas inside will increase.

    23. An Example: Boyle’s Law Boyle’s work was later combined with that of Jacques Charles and Joseph Gay-Lussac to produce the Ideal Gas Law. PV = nRT The Ideal Gas Law predicts the behavior of gases over a wide range of temperatures, pressures, and volumes. There’s just one problem:

    24. We need a theory!!! A means of relating the laws describing a class of events to a framework and a set of principles described in terms differing from those used for the laws. The observations predicted by the Ideal Gas Law are explained by the Kinetic Theory of Gases.

    25. The Kinetic Theory of Gases

    26. The Kinetic Theory of Gases

    27. A Good Theory Is...

    28. Why there are no scientific “truths”

    29. Falsifiability

    30. Norms of Science

    31. The Hallmarks of Pseudoscience

    32. The Hallmarks of Pseudoscience

    33. Eight Important Points Anecdotes do NOT make science Scientific language does NOT make science Bold statements do NOT make claims true Heresy does NOT equal correctness

    34. Eight Important Points Rumors do NOT equal reality Unexplained is NOT inexplicable Correlation does NOT mean causation Coincidence does NOT mean connection

    35. Always remember... “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”

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