After reading this week’s topic 1301.4 Scientific Method; I understood the meaning of Uniformitarianism; and it’s importance to science. There are several different definitions, but they all have the same understanding of what uniformitarianism is, and how it exist. “Uniformitarianism is the idea that the present is the key to past.” (Carmichael, 2013). A more modern term for uniformitarianism is called actualism. Uniformitarianism is a process that happens over a course of time, at different rates. In simpler term Uniformitarianism is a way of explaining that certain things in life happen even if no one was around to ‘witness’ the event; why, because it is just nature and happens that way. The way that Uniformitarianism functions within scientific
To begin, the concept of unification is essentially the idea that scientific explanations should provide a unified account of a range of different phenomena. In other words, the best theories are those that can explain the most phenomena in the simplest way. This is why in the history of scientific explanation, we preferred Newton’s theory of motion over the more specific theories of Kepler and Galileo that preceded it. Because Newton’s theory was able to “unify” the observational data of his predecessors, as well as explain other...
To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel by Harper Lee embodies a work of Southern literature, set in the 1930s in a small town in Alabama. The book’s genre exemplifies a coming-of-age historical fiction story. The narrator, a young girl named Scout Finch, describes the lessons she and her brother Jem learn when their father, a lawyer named Atticus, defends an African American man who stands accused of raping a white woman. The novel’s premise revolves around the efforts of a father raising his children and guiding them in their moral development. Along the way, the book deals with the themes of courage, prejudice and maturity. These three concepts are defined differently by Atticus than by most of the other people in the town where he lives. According to Atticus, courage means doing what remains as right and resisting what remains as wrong, even if other people oppose you. In contrast to the prejudice of the townspeople, Atticus believes it important to treat everyone equally. Maturity, in Atticus’ view, refers to having a sense of conscience and seeking to protect those who remain innocent. As these definitions show, Atticus Finch displays a strong sense of ethics. His goal as a parent remains to pass his values on to his children. This paper will argue that Scout and Jem learn the true meanings of courage, prejudice and maturity through the influence of their father and the example he sets for them.
d. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. a. Is Science Autonomous? American Psychologist, 23, 70. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/article.cgi?issn=0003066x&issue=v23i0001&article=70_isa&search_term=%28title%3D%28is+science+autonomous%29%29 Messenger, E., Gooch, J., & Seyler, D. U. (2011). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Arguing About Science -.
The symbolism and imagery used in the short stories paints a vivid picture into the author’s train of thought. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Shirley Jackson were not normal writers. The stories are a form of gothic writing. This paper will be analyzing the point of view, symbolism, and setting in the stories The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.
Since the mid-20th century, a central debate in the philosophy of science is the role of epistemic values when evaluating its bearing in scientific reasoning and method. In 1953, Richard Rudner published an influential article whose principal argument and title were “The Scientist Qua Scientist Makes Value Judgments” (Rudner 1-6). Rudner proposed that non-epistemic values are characteristically required when making inductive assertions on the rationalization of scientific hypotheses. This paper aims to explore Rudner’s arguments and Isaac Levi’s critique on his claims. Through objections to Levi’s dispute for value free ideal and highlighting the importance of non-epistemic values within the tenets and model development and in science and engineering,
Consequently I propose an empiricism approach to science. Empiricism takes empirical adequacy (not truth) as the goal of science and when it accepts a theory it accepts it as empirically adequate.
Without theories, scientists’ experiments would yield no significance to the world. Theories are the core of the scientific community; therefore figuring out how to determine which theory prevails amongst the rest is an imperative matter. Kuhn was one of the many bold scientists to attempt to bring forth an explanation for why one theory is accepted over another, as well as the process of how this occurs, known as the Scientific Revolution. Kuhn chooses to refer to a theory as a ‘paradigm’, which encompasses a wide range of definitions such as “a way of doing science in a specific field”, “claims about the world”, “methods of fathering/analyzing data”, “habits of scientific thought and action”, and “a way of seeing the world and interacting with it” (Smith, pg.76). However in this case, we’ll narrow paradigm to have a similar definition to that of a ‘theory’, which is a system of ideas used to explain something; it can also be deemed a model for the scientific community to follow. Kuhn’s explanation of a Scientific Revolution brings to light one major problem—the problem of incommensurability.
According to the Under Determination argument, it is nearly impossible to collect all data. It is impossible to collect all data because even if science finds a way to collect all data in the future, there are things in the past that cannot be checked on. It is an argument against realism which states that different theories though consistent with the entities of the observable aspects of a theory, they may differ on the unobservable aspect. This damages the position of realism because the data does not determine one specific theory. This is so because there could be several theories that explain your data perfectly, but you would not be able to know which one is the correct theory. The antirealism position is winning in this sense because even if you believe your one theory to be the right one, there is no way of knowing you are
Physicalism is either false, or it lacks content. Physicalism claims that everything can be exhaustively described and explained by physics, implying that persons are merely collections of fundamental physical particles and as such, their behavior can thoroughly be described and explained using physics. This, however, begs the question of which physics accounts for the descriptions and explanations of the world, and in turn, persons and their behaviors; the progressive nature of science renders the term ‘physics’ ambiguous. This problem is called the Hempel’s dilemma and is argued thusly:
New York: Science Editions, 1994. Redhead, M.L.G. & Co., Inc. (1980, November ). The New York Times. A Bayesian Reconstruction of Methodology of Scientific Research Programs. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, pp.
everyone since teh beginning fo time has had their own views and standards for the way that everything around them should be. these views are seemingly set in stone and unchangeable. there are many examples in the past of terrible consequences for expressing views other than the norm at the time. more recently this apprehension to change was described by Thomas Kuhn in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revoulutions.
...tful and thought provoking opinions on scientific realism. Each perspective explains science in its own unique way. As a result, I was drawn to know how entity realism defines success in science. According to Steven French, success for entity realism depends on more than just the “supposed truth of theories”. Entity realist defines success as the ability for us to “intervene in the world”. This intervention enables us to create new technologies and observe new phenomena. Our new technologies allow us to believe in unobservable entities like electrons. I found this to be important because this is essentially a description of scientist’s day-to-day task. It is their job to identify phenomena, research it and come up with an explanation of why the phenomena occurs. Scientist spend their entire careers intervening in hopes to grasp a better understanding of the world.
At the very dawning of the science of historical geology, James Hutton developed views on the earth’s geologic processes and ow they affect the planet unlike any other scientist before him. His idea that the planet’s processes revolved in a cyclic fashion were the cornerstone of uniformitarianism. Although he did not coin the phrase himself, an honor bestowed upon William Whewell, he did form the basic idea that the history of the earth can be explained by what is happening now.
The language in this knowledge claim allows for multiple interpretations. Hence, we will assume that the past refers to both the distant and recent past, and that the phrase “change the future” includes further developing the AoK of human science's ability to predict ways to change the future. To check the validity of the knowledge claim, we will look at both the AoK history and the AoK human sciences in relation to the past and future respectively.
Cole, K. C., and Sue Giddings. "Is There Such a Thing as Scientific Objectivity?" DISCOVER Sept. 1985: 76-78. Web.