Evidence As Supporting the Reason
EVIDENCE AS SUPPORTING THE REASON: In other arguments, evidence, rather than being the main reason, supports the reason in coming to some conclusion. Evidence usually refers to something seen, but evidence often refers to a collection of identical things that have been seen or heard, called data.
“Statistical evidence” usually refers to the totaling of similar things or instances. In some arguments the evidence can support a reason or reasons that in turn support the conclusion. For instance: The geologist concluded that that we will enter another ice age within one hundred years. Her reasons are that ice ages have occurred in recent geologic history every ten thousand years and that we are just a few years shy of the beginning of such an interval. She produced fossils as the evidence dating such climatic change over six ten-thousand-year cycles.
Evidence in Science: When we hear arguments that have to do with the nature of the physical world, the evidence will be the result of direct, hands-on experimentation. For instance, two thousand years ago Greek philosophers speculated upon the argument that the universe is made up of elementary particles (atoms). Other thinkers opposed this notion, with equally strong arguments. No experimental method had been devised to deal with this and other questions about the physical world. With the advent of the scientific method and its consistent application throughout the past century however, we have amassed experimental evidence to support the notion of the atomic theory. Notice that scientists don’t refer to atomic facts. A theory is a complex argument. Scientific method maintains the balance of “maybe not” by keeping the atomic argument (and all others) open to challenge, despite very strong evidence in its favor. Scientists search for facts but view them as factual claims. So evidence in science hews to the ideal of experimental method.
Examples of Scientific Questions: What is the
“Statistical evidence” usually refers to the totaling of similar things or instances. In some arguments the evidence can support a reason or reasons that in turn support the conclusion. For instance: The geologist concluded that that we will enter another ice age within one hundred years. Her reasons are that ice ages have occurred in recent geologic history every ten thousand years and that we are just a few years shy of the beginning of such an interval. She produced fossils as the evidence dating such climatic change over six ten-thousand-year cycles.
Evidence in Science: When we hear arguments that have to do with the nature of the physical world, the evidence will be the result of direct, hands-on experimentation. For instance, two thousand years ago Greek philosophers speculated upon the argument that the universe is made up of elementary particles (atoms). Other thinkers opposed this notion, with equally strong arguments. No experimental method had been devised to deal with this and other questions about the physical world. With the advent of the scientific method and its consistent application throughout the past century however, we have amassed experimental evidence to support the notion of the atomic theory. Notice that scientists don’t refer to atomic facts. A theory is a complex argument. Scientific method maintains the balance of “maybe not” by keeping the atomic argument (and all others) open to challenge, despite very strong evidence in its favor. Scientists search for facts but view them as factual claims. So evidence in science hews to the ideal of experimental method.
Examples of Scientific Questions: What is the