bis 3320 midterm exam definitions

Scientific Method

*Observation:* empirical (given to the senses) experience and establishes facts as mutually agreed upon experiences (phenomena); inductive in that past experiences qualify new experiences and are determined by frames of reference; limited in that senses cannot perceive full spectrum of electromagnetic/mechanical/optical illusion signals. *Hypothesis or Theory:* A causal explanation for an observation; must be empirically deterministic; may be imaginative and metaphoric, yet deductive in formulation; probabilistic until verified by additional evidence or test results; may be built from prior hypotheses of varying degrees of verification; the best hypotheses rise to the level of law because of continued verification or applicability across broad spectrum of phenomena, but never achieve 100% certainty; same as a theory that is probabilistic. *Experiment, test, or measurement:* Demonstrates in an attempted closed system (controlled variables) whether the hypothesis supports the causal explanation for the observation; with some phenomena not being capable of demonstration and only being measurable. *Conclusion:* Deductive assessment whether the experiment demonstrated the causal explanation for the phenomena in a closed system; results in a probability statement; hypotheses can be proved absolutely false, but do not achieve absolute truth because all through all time cannot be achieved (induction). *Prediction:* Inductively predicts future encounters with the phenomena will be causally explained by the hypothesis; verification of the hypothesis by the collection of subsequent same or similar evidence though experiment, test or measurement; verification by enumeration contributes to the probability that the hypothesis is true, but absolute proof (truth) is never achieved; often presents the challenge: it ought to be there if you look. *Consensus:* agreement among scientists following verification by enumerated conclusions that the prevailing hypothesis is supported by the evidence; establishes the paradigm or ruling theory within scientific categories of study; the most social and political of all steps of the scientific method even though the ends of science are not popularly or democratically determined.

On the Nature of Things

A roman article created by Titus Lucretius Carus that reiterates what Greeks said regarding "demythologize causal explanations." Said that nature causes nature, no thing can come from nothing, that nature is made up of atoms that are indivisible, and that no thing passes away to nothing.

Galileo Galilei

concluded that the sun has to be in the center of the solar system see past everyday experience that suggests the sun rises and sets and concluded that the earth rotated, even through his evidence was not factually correct/telescope; Moons of Jupiter: different phases; Phases of Venus: understood cast shadows and linear perspectives

Agnosticism

existence of a supreme being cannot be believed or disbelieved because it is fundamentally unknowable and thus left as an open question.

Mesolithic

Middle Stone Age-beginning of agricultural settlements

Neolithic

New Stone Age-cities founded, people were able to track changes of seasons and predict daylight/future survival

Paleolithic

Old Stone Age- hunter/gatherers, used direct observation and experience in their daily interaction with natural surroundings

Theism

a supreme being acts as a motive force in nature and human history

Epistemology

a systematic study of the origins of knowledge - how we know what we know, questioning where our knowledge originates

justifiably true

all of the information that is presented on the internet through publishing is seen as a challenge to be justifiably true, meaning that there is no consistent reliable way to determine if the information is true or not. Anyone online can put up any sort of information and edit excessively, and it is our responsibility to understand whether the information is actually true.

Deism

allows for the belief in a supreme being as a creator, but the creator does not intervene in nature or human history

*Laws of Nature*

although there are no laws of nature, these are rules that humans come up with to keep up with an order of systematic processes...

Climate change denial

an example of how scientific consensus can be contrary to popular opinion; multiple studies show that climate-warming trends over the past century are likely due to human activities, but politicians say that climate change is a hoax science is not just about belief, but rather justifiable true belief through arguments with empirical evidence

Arts

application of "poetic/aesthetic" understanding to the making of things that affectively (to have a feeling or subjective experience accompanying a thought or action or occurring in response to an emotion or mood) influence human awareness by evoking the passions.

Technology

application of causal understanding (something that causes something else to work; for example bridge to support traffic by overcoming weight and anything as a force of weight) to the building of things to mediate between human needs, especially the need for survival, and the forces of nature

Sacred philosophy

before metaphysics was wrapped in Aristotelian claims of cause and a supreme being, science was connected to religion. (earth was in the center

being an intellectual

being able to think about a respected exchange of ideas that the best well-reasoned argument with best evidence is persuasive enough to convince others that a conclusion or action is a right choice, or an idea is true or correct; experiences that qualifies one as having been intellectually nurtured differently in terms of acquired knowledge and thinking abilities; starts with educational attainment; being a well-informed skeptic, being comfortable with doubt, acknowledging error, and having courage to demand well-reasoned arguments with evidence.

Metaphysics

beyond physics (spirits) - a systematic study of what exists and that which is beyond the physical, a branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things or reality, including questions about being, substance, time and space, causation, change, and identity

*Demarcation*

border of science from other ways of knowing; must have a valid hypothesis that had to be disprovable or have potential to be falsified; quasi science meaning that theory may be well reasoned and based on all current theories, but not be testable (occurs when hypothesis is adaptable to evidence not genuinely scientific)

Tycho Brahe

built the 1571 observatory that allowed to provide the king with astrological readings. This allows for him to build a measuring device that allowed for it to be tilted to align with stars and planets to measure and record position and time.

Albert Einstein

gravity was the bending of space time by mass and used examples from Galileo and Newton to emphasize these points; theory of relativity

*Retrodictions*

historical sciences that look into the past to make predictions scientific measures rely on measuring and interpreting the evidence of past events such as documents and artifacts rather than experiments.

deterministic view

if one could reliably describe the motion of all fundamental particles in the universe, one could predict everything that happens.

Root paradigm

includes the faith that nature must be comprehensible and reasonably intelligible

induction

induction is slightly different in that there is not a "100% support to the conclusion, and this would be suggesting that if A is B, then all of A has to be all of B. Therefore, inductive reasoning lies in the statement that the more times the argument/topic occur, the more valid the argument/topic is. This results in prediction-making, which often can be based on samples of scientific evidence or emotional perspectives (racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, and feelings), suggesting that not all logical statements are always true. if this A is B, then ALL As are Bs. To reconcile with this statement, use statistics

Dreyfus affair

intellectuals have an ethical duty or moral responsibility to serve the greater public good in the face of injustice pitted the French military courts against Dreyfus was falsely convicted of treason (not the guilty soldier because of intellectuals such as Emile Zola)

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

it is impossible to precisely and simultaneously measure the position and momentum of a subatomic particle, because measuring one aspect impeded the other measurement because of the measuring device that I used. shows that probability statements are the only ways that can resolve the uncertain measurements

Logic

logic is defined as the study of how one expresses certainty and justifiable truth. This is used in daily instances where experiences and facts used as evidence to support a claim being made, whether it is done in an argument or in other manners.

Confirmation Bias

one only seeks or accepts evidence that confirms already held positions, possibly even in the face of contrary evidence (people are guilty of this because it allows for us to justify predictions because of patterns)

healthy skeptic

one who stands for the truth and stands in contract to the cynicism of the people on the internet who do not look for the truth and are motivated by self-interests and not looking for the scientific truth.

echo chamber

people are only consuming what their PII data has been interpreted to interest them. For example, you may be seeing ads on your Smart TV that are tailored just for you whereas your next door neighbor may be seeing completely different data. This causes for specific chambers of like-minded individuals.

Dunning-Kruger effect

people tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains.

a priori

prior existing (laws of nature that require nature to follow with specific intent like humans obey laws)

absolute truth

science cannot be the absolute truth, because it has inductive logic that includes prediction making about various examples through times this allows for predictions to be made about how nature will behave this leads to experiments, hypotheses, or evidence to be uncertain in the future and can only be expressed statistically.

probability statements

scientific conclusions can only be resolved with these probability statements that offer a proposition on something that can be tested to determine if it is true or not; the only way that a hypothesis, experiment, or evidence can be resolved is through a probability statements that is expressed statistically.

Chaos Theory

shows that a system can become unpredictable over time and that the choice of the initial variables is of the utmost importance (weather or rounding to a number could have various results)

Eugenics

sought to improve humanity by selective breeding, which meant prevention of breeding to remove disease and less desirable inherited traits. This caused for forced sterilization of people which initially focused on disabled to poverty. sought to justify racial and ethnic prejudices both in the US and Nazi Germany from 1920s to after WWII but was stopped.

Natural philosophy

starting to look at science in perspective to nature (sun was in the center)

Political philosophy

study of collective living (e.g. which is a better form of government - monarchy, republic, democracy, socialism, communism, tyranny, dictatorship, etc.)

Ethics

study of oughts (what we ought to do vs not to do; good actions vs bad actions) morals

Aesthetics

study of perception (especially having to do with evaluating the arts; beauty, do we keep it, is the object "art")

Ontology

study of the nature of being (are we free; do we have free will and are we self-determined) how things such as rocks do not exist the same way as personal freedom, derived from metaphysics

Inductive logic

the conclusion follows not with certainty, but only with some probability (a risky inference; for example if 90% of humans are right-handed, and I am a human, I am right-handed) you have observations that allow you to create a hypothesis and observe a theory (the more times, the more factually correct)

Deductive logic

the conclusion follows with certainty from the premises (your facts prove your hypothesis to give you a conclusion)

Probability statement

the contention that any hypothesis, experiment, or evidence describes what will happen in the future or did happen in the past is uncertain and can be resolved in a probability statement, statistically.

science

the observation, description, and causal explanation and prediction of physical events

intellectual inquiry

the process of using thinking to determine whether an argument is justifiably true; using critical thinking to ponder questions to understand the evidence.

Humanities

the recording and interpretation of human phenomena to expose human values qualitative analysis that includes broadly investigating and interpreting human experience without experimentation or measurements.

culture

the vast dialogue that embeds into science; includes hierarchies of values, some of which are dependent on what science mentions; science is a part of our culture and participates in it

cult of ignorance

there has been anti-intellectualism that has wound through political and cultural issues, and people tend to think that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge;" we look at where truth does not matter, but rather who can provide the most entertainment value. "anti-reason, anti-elite, and anti-science"

critical thinking skills

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and asses conclusions. Being able to sort out information from various influences that can alter the truth. Being "essentially simple" and "comprehensible to everyone."

Cognitive dissonance

ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling conflict creating cognitive dissonance, which is when a person holds two contradictory beliefs, causing discomfort, the person tries to change one of the beliefs in order to avoid being inconsistent, leading to hypocrisy.

Edwin Hubble

when Hubble looked more closely at the Andromeda Nebula, there was no more than a gas cloud, and he spotted a lone flickering star. That start allowed Hubble to calculate the Earth's distance from the star, showing that it was in a different galaxy using his telescope

deduction

with deduction, an argument would be valid by proving that all statements of an argument are sound and true, thereby showing that if A equals B and B equal C, A must equal C. This process of deduction allows one to use logic to "achieve justifiable true belief," meaning that the truth can be justified by beliefs that lead the pathway to the right conclusion. Therefore, deduction is using the process of scientific method and reasoning in order to predict validity of an argument/topic, which may not always be true. Form of logic that says the conclusion absolutely follows from the premises: if all A is all B then all B is all A