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7/31/2019 Dalton Ruth Sd What is a Scientific Theory
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dalton-ruth-sd-what-is-a-scientific-theory 1/21
What is a scientific
theory?Dr. Ruth Conroy Dalton
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A brief philosophical
introductionThe definit ion of research questions depends
above all on research method, and about this there is a long standing history of
philosophical debate
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Francis BaconBacon suggested that knowledge could be gained from the
senses, but only byusing them throughcarefully constructedexperiments (since the senses err)
Essentially, Baconholds that data come first
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Rene Descartes
Only the most basic thoughts can be assumed
to be true & a process of logical argument canconstruct knowledge from these alone
Knowledge can be conducted in isolationfrom either prev ious
thinkers or sense data
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Commonsense and the
problem of inductionSince the sun rose yesterday, and today
it wil l rise again tomorrow
It seems that byobserving regularit ies
in the world we can‘induce’ generalprinciples or laws
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David Hume
What is the justificat ion for the belief that the future
will be largely like the past?
Hume stated that there could be no basis inlogic for the assumption that past regularit ies will repeat
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Karl Popper Could ‘empiricalreasons’ ever be used to justify the
assumption of truth or falsi ty of anystatement?
His answer was that
although they couldnever just ify its truth they could prove itsfalsity
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Popperian science
Theory
Observation
Experiment
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Kuhn and paradigm
shiftsDominant sets of ways we think about things (paradigms)
Revolut ionary shiftsof paradigm
Causing the shifts are anomalous data andnew (younger) groupsof scient ists
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Holmdel satelli te antenna, Bel l Labs N.J.
Penzias and Wilson10
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Hacking and the
creation of phenomena“Creation of phenomena which then becomes the
subject of theory”
For Hacking the exper imentalist playsa key role, asimportant as the predict ions of the theorist
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Creating phenomena
Theory
ObservationTransforming& Calculating
Representing
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The social and the
artificialExperimenting
Spotting regularit ies
Discovering mechanisms that have explanatorypower over the regularit ies
Generating classificat ions and names
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Experiments
No fixed method
Follow hunches
Make it clear what the variables are and what isbeing kept constant
Explore all the dimensions of a problem as far as
possible
Develop methods for representing visually andmeasuring
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Regularities
Those that act at the level of the individual
Those that act at the level of the group
Those that act at the level of a whole class of systems
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Mechanisms
Mechanisms provide explanations for regularities
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Classification and
namingClassificat ion is a procedure in which indiv idualitems are placed into groups based on quant itati ve informat ion on one or more characterist ics
inherent in the items (referred to as traits, variables, characters, etc)
One aspect of classification is the process of deciding what to observe (if two categories that behave
differently are observed as a single class the result may hold no pattern)
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The three principles of
researchThe shortest model (or
simplest theory) that accounts fully for the phenomena on hand ispreferable . This iscalled 'Occam's razor'
or the principle of parsimony
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The three principles of
researchThe shortest model (or simplest theory) that accounts ful ly for the phenomena on hand ispreferable . This is called 'Occam's razor' or the
principle of parsimony
Wherever you come across an anomaly, place it at the centre of the theoretical investigat ion
If there is more than one way of looking at things doboth
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Paradoxes and
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Questions and topics
Often research is a matter of followinghunches and intuit ions about interesting
things to study and ways to study them...What is the question to which this topic isrelevant?
What is the question to which these methods are relevant?
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