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What is Science ?

What is Science ?. Science has become synonymous with reliability, validity and certainty It is an activity characterized by three features : It is a search for understanding some aspect of reality

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What is Science ?

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  1. What is Science ? • Science has become synonymous with reliability, validity and certainty • It is an activity characterized by three features : • It is a search for understanding some aspect of reality • It achieves understanding by means of statements of general laws or principles derived from sensory observation and inductive reasoning • The laws or principles can be tested experimentally

  2. A Brief History of Science • Key Developments in the Scientific Revolution • Copernicus (b1473 AD)-Heliocentric Universe • Galileo (b1564 AD)-Work with falling bodies • Newton (b1642)-Universal Laws of Gravitation • Mendel (b1822)-Laws of Heredity • Darwin (b1809)-Theory of Evolution

  3. Key Thinkers in the Formulation of the Scientific Method

  4. Francis Bacon (b1561AD) • Pioneer in SM • Don’t accept what the Greeks said • Investigate using observation and experimentation

  5. John Stuart Mill (b1806AD) • Established three rules to guide SM : • The accumulation of particular observations • Generalization from particular observations • Repeated confirmation

  6. William Whewell (b1794CE) • Introduced the Hypothesis Method • Scientist makes an educated guess (H) and then tests it against sensory observations derived from experimentation • “reason” used in formulating H (reflects Kant)

  7. Karl Popper (b1902) • Distinguished between science and pseudoscience • A scientific hypothesis must be capable of being falsified through empirical observation (eg Suzuki vs Rushton) • Science tries to disprove proposed theories • Scientific knowledge is never certain, only probable and open to revisions based on new evidence

  8. Thomas Khun (b1922 C.E.) • Wrote “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” • Claimed that scientists were influenced by the communities they operated out of…rationality is historically conditioned by social, political and economic factors (eg. Space Race, Nazi Science)…science is not performed in a vacuum • Introduced the notion of the “paradigm”… a worldview or mindmap for looking at the world

  9. Thomas Kuhn continued… • -Scientists often cling to theories even when the data doesn't support them • Science doesn’t develop gradually as one might expect… often quantum leaps based on revolutionary ideas (usually by the young) (eg Einstein, Newton)

  10. Kuhn continued….. • In Kuhn’s view a good scientific theory has 5 traits • Accurate the consequences of the theory support sensory data • Consistent – corresponds with data and other prevailing theories on related topics • Broad Scope – should extent far beyond what it was originally designed to explain • Simple – brings order to confusion • Fruitful – discloses new information about relationships

  11. Science & Truth • Key question:Does Science give us truth ? • Three views on this which parallel the theories of truth • Case Studies : The Standard Theory of Matter & Copernicus’ Model of the Solar System

  12. The Conceptual Relativist View • Related to the Coherence Theory of Truth and the work of Thomas Kuhn • A true scientific theory coheres with the conceptual framework accepted by a community of scientists • Scientists are influenced by the communities and “paradigms” they operate out of (e.g. the Space Race) • Our theories about reality influence what we think we are seeing when we observe reality ….we cannot independently know the real world

  13. The Instrumentalist View • Related to the Pragmatic Theory of Truth • Scientific Theories are true if they enable us to accurately predict what will happen ...they work ! • No one actually believed that Copernicus’ theory was an accurate description of the solar system but it explained the motion of the celestial spheres • The scientist “invents” the scientific truth

  14. The Realist View • Related to the Correspondence Theory of Truth • Scientific theories are true or false in so far as they describe what really exists • The goal of science is to explain the world as it really is • The scientist “discovers” the scientific truth

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