The text delves into various aspects of scientific thinking, emphasizing the importance of a structured approach to understanding and conducting research. It highlights the necessity of forming hypotheses, conducting experiments, and making observations to arrive at reliable conclusions.
- Assumptions, concepts, values, practices form model of understanding
- No contradiction
Deductive
- Start with general statement then examines possibilities to reach specific, logical conclusion
Inductive
- Reasoning from detailed facts to general principles
20 fallacies
straw man
confusion or correlation and causation
slippery slope
short term vs. long term
excluded middle, or false dichotomy
meaningless question
post hoc, ergo propter hoc
non sequitur
inconsistency
misunderstanding of the nature of statistics
statistics of small numbers
observational selection
begging the question
weasel words
suppresed evidence
special pleading
appeal to ignorance
argument from adverse consequences
argument from authority
ad hominem
research methods
case studies
surveys
natural observation
corrolation
experimental
wrong science
pathological:
- Well intentioned science with almost imperceptible mistakes
- Tricked into false results by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions
Bad:
- Scientific setup is wrong
Junk:
- Good science to support a bad setting
- Inaccurate analysis and data that is used to skew opinion or push agenda
pseudo:
-based on theories and methods erroneously regarded as scientific
- not consistent with the methods or principles of science
- can’t be tested
- lack evidence
process of science
conclusions
experiments
proposal = hypothesis
questions
observation
Ethics
science should be ethical
scientific experiment
number: must be large enough
control variable: constant in experiment
control group: experiment not applied on
dependent variable: depends on other variables
independent variable: does not depend on other variables