Extension Science

• The Foundations of Scientific Thinking
• Epistemology


  A branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge
• Aspects of scientific epistemology

  • The qualities of scientific knowledge
  • The limitations of scientific knowledge
  • How scientific knowledge is generated
• Qualities of scientific knowledge

  • Science attempts to explain natural phenomena
  • Scientific knowledge is represented as laws and theories
  • Laws describe patterns and relationships
  • Theories provide explanations of natural phenomena
  • Scientific knowledge is tentative and requires revision
  • Science is part of social and cultural traditions
  • Scientific ideas are affected by social and historical setting
• Limitations of scientific knowledge

  • Science does not make moral judgements
  • Science does not make aesthetic judgments
  • Science does not prescribe how to use scientific knowledge
  • Science does not explore supernatural or paranormal phenomena
• How scientific knowledge is generated

  • Relies on observations, experimental evidence, rational arguments and scepticism
  • Advances through slow/incremental and revolutionary progression
  • Observations are theory dependent
  • No universal scientific method, uses inductive and deductive processes

  
• Science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing through empirical standards, logical arguments, and scepticism
• Alternative ways of knowing

  • Emotion
  • Faith/Belief
  • Imagination
  • Intuition
  • Language
  • Memory
  • Reason
  • Sense Perception
• Navigation


  1. Early travellers relied on sense perception

  2. Advances in measuring techniques and geometry created accurate maps

  3. Navigational instruments extended sense perception

  4. Modern navigation uses radar, gyroscopes and GPS

  5. Polynesians used natural navigation aids and non-physical devices
• Science is derived from philosophy, with natural philosophy being the beginning of science
• Empiricism

  A branch of philosophy that emphasises 'prior experience' and the importance of observations for knowledge construction
• Induction

  The process of generalisation from specific observations
• Deduction

  The process of deriving specific knowledge from broad ideas
• Inductive and deductive thinking

  • Cell Theory
  • Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
• Scientific Laws

  Describe relationships between variables, usually expressed as mathematical equations
• Parsimony/Occam's Razor


  The principle that the simplest explanation is generally the best
• Use of Occam's Razor


  • Geocentric vs heliocentric models of the solar system

  
• Scientists do not use Occam's Razor exclusively, evidence is the most important factor
• Falsifiability

  The principle that all scientific ideas should be testable and potentially falsifiable
• Hypothesis

  A tentative explanation of a narrow set of related phenomena that needs to be tested

  
• Hypotheses cannot be proven true, they can only be falsified
• Falsification

  • Differentiating scientific ideas from non-scientific ideas
  • A method to test and verify scientific ideas

  
• Hypothesis testing

  A method of testing and verifying scientific ideas that arose from the principle of falsification

  
• Hypothesis

  Tentative explanations of a narrow set of related phenomena
• Example hypothesis

  If pollution in the atmosphere increases then incidence of asthma increases
• Hypotheses


  • Cannot be proven to be true - they can only be falsified
  • Can only be rejected (if not supported by evidence) or not rejected (if evidence supports the hypothesis)
• The goal of hypothesis testing is to reject what is false (not supported by evidence)
• Hypothesis testing often involves statistical analysis of experimental data
• Confirmation bias

  The tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions
• Theory-laden observation

  How previous experiences, beliefs and assumptions affect the inferences drawn from observations
• Example of theory-laden observation

  • An X-ray image may not be informative to the untrained person, but to an experienced radiologist, the same image may be very informative
• Theory-laden observations can lead people to derive different conclusions from the same set of observations
• Reasons for confirmation bias

  • Poor experimental design or data
  • Preliminary studies interpreted as confirmatory studies
  • Correlation confused with cause-and-effect
• Confirmation bias is not a good thing in science as it improperly confirms a researcher's belief about the outcome of an inquiry
• Knowledge construction is closely linked with cultural constructs
• Examples of cultural observational knowledge

  • Astronomy in ancient Mexican (Mayan), Egyptian, Indian and Chinese societies
  • Aboriginal astronomical knowledge in Australia
  • Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Aboriginal societies
• Contemporary society benefits from traditional knowledge as it becomes integrated with scientific knowledge
• Examples of cultural observational knowledge contributing to scientific advancement

  • Greece: parallax measurements, geometry, geocentric and heliocentric models
  • Egypt: curvature of Earth, calendar, brewing, agriculture
  • India: metallurgy, surgery, medicine, mathematics, astronomy
  • China: metallurgy, printing, explosives, paper, irrigation, acupuncture
  • Islamic: medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy
  • Discovery of anti-malarial compound Artemisinin based on traditional Chinese medicine
• Paradigm


  The set of concepts, theories, research methods and postulates used by scientists in a scientific discipline
• Normal science


  Everyday science where scientists conduct inquiries into the paradigm, verifying hypotheses