1. Evidence is important because it is the foundation of a scientific theory and explains…
When we talk about science, many people hear the term “theory”. The definition of a scientific theory can become confusing since many people interpret the meaning differently. When a person uses the term “theory” in a sentence it is usually used in a non-scientific way. They assume that a theory is something assumed, but not proven. When the term “theory” is used in science, it means an explanation based on observation, experimentation, and reasoning. It has been tested and confirmed as a general principle to explain phenomena. A scientific theory must be based on careful examination of facts. “A theory is a hypothesis or set of hypotheses that has stood the test and (so far, at least) has not been contradicted by evidence” (Suplee 9).…
Imagine life as we know it without science. This may be hard to do, considering that scientific technology is now a perpetual symbol of modern-day life. Everything we see, everything we touch, and everything we ingest—all conceived of scientific research. But how did it come to be this way? Was it not only centuries ago that science began to surpass the authority of the church? Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, natural philosophers, now known as scientists, founded a new world view on science, which was previously based on the Bible and classic philosophers like Aristotle and Ptolemy. Both people connected their natural studies directly to God and the Bible, creating ideas like a geocentric earth. With time and new ideas, scientists managed to develope methods for creating and discovering things in nature, and with enough resources and patronage, were able to answer asked and unasked questions. Science, however, was not supported by everyone, and had to face many challenges to achieve the power it maintains in today’s world. Due to the strong authority that politics, religion, and common social order controlled in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, science was subjectively held in the hands of those who could utilize it or reject it.…
It has long been debated whether visual perception is an innate ability (nature), or if they are developed through experience (nurture). Many neonate studies have supported the argument that perception is an innate process. Gibson and Walk (1960) conducted the ‘visual cliff’ study, in which a glass-topped table was modified using a checkerboard design, so that the depth cues therefore gave the impression of a ‘shallow side’ and a ‘deep drop’. 6-month-old infants were then placed on the shallow side of the table and tempted by their favourite toy or their mother on the deeper side. Most infants could not be tempted to cross to the deep side, which suggests that depth perception may be innate.…
Finally I will refer to two interesting ideas presented in an article of Elizabeth Kolbert in “Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds”.1 She refer to Sloman and Fernbach that claim: sociability is the key to understand how the human mind functions. We never think alone, our thinking is heavely influenced by others.2 Previously in her article, she referred to Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber3 and wrote: “reason is an evolved trait, like bipedalism or three-color vision. It emerged on the savannas of Africa, and has to be understood in that context. .. Reason developed not to enable us to solve abstract, logical problems or even to help us draw conclusions from unfamiliar data; rather, it developed to resolve the problems posed by living in collaborative…
Over time many different scientific ideas have been affected, not only negatively, by opinions of people around the world. To start the idea of geocentrism is “a disproved theory that places the Earth at the center of the Universe with every other heavenly body orbit around it.” This theory was first introduced in the 6th century B.C by Anaximander, however it did not become extensively popular until the 2nd century A.D when Ptolemy unveiled his theories. Earth was not always thought to be a sphere; instead when the the thought of geocentrism was first proposed, it was believed that earth was a cylinder and all of the planets, moons, and stars “were holes in invisible wheels surrounding the Earth.” Anaximander believed humans could see enshrouded fires within the holes. However, many developed their own perceptions of the universe. Such as, in the Aristotelian system where the earth is spherical and centering the system and all of the bodies are connected to fifty-six concentric spheres which rotated the earth. Finally, the concept of heliocentrism, “The idea of placing the sun at the center of the universe”, became supremely popular in the 16th century. This was because technology was advanced enough at the time to prove more evidence toward the idea, than in earlier times.The heliocentric model was probably not introduced by Copernicus until he was dying because the Catholic church considered the thought of the sun being at the center unorthodox. So, after Copernicus died the church tried to suppress the theory. The heliocentric model eventually replaced the geocentric model, even though the process was slow.…
Now that you have read and reviewed Chapter 1, take your learning a step further by testing your critical thinking skills on this scientific reasoning exercise.…
As Watson stated in "The Value of Theories", a scientific theory is a systematic explanation that unifies various observed phenomena and facts. Based on observations we make, science operates under theories which are constantly revised and checked by experiment. A scientific theory also possesses many vital qualities for true understanding.…
Scientific thinking and the scientific method have been a part of problem solving and communication since…
Flower, Linda, and John Hayes. “The Cognition of Discovery: Defining a Rhetorical Problem.” College Composition and Communication 31 (1980): 21-32.…
During the 17th and 18th centuries, women were often seen as the inferior of the two sexes. They were expected to be educated only in how to take care of the house, how to cook, how to raise a child, and other common jobs that were thought to be suitable for a woman. However, as the Scientific Revolution occurred, more and more women began to take interest in studying other things such as chemistry, astronomy, and medicine. The attitudes and reactions towards the participation of women in these fields of study during the 17th and 18th centuries were both positive and negative; some people were completely against it, some men supported it, and some women supported their sex by proving themselves in their respective fields of study; but, the road to acceptance for women was not one without struggles, sacrificing countless days and their health for the all the sake of science.…
“There are some scholars who would argue that “the Age of Discovery” should be called “the Age of Destruction.”. I agree and disagree with the statement because it was in fact the “Age of Discovery” because transculturation along with the spread of Christianity began and there was an increase of agriculture and economy. Nevertheless, it too, is appropriate to be called the “Age of Destruction” because the birth of diseases affected the entire population, enslavement with the African Americans caused hardships and the destruction of the villages where the Native Americans resided came about.…
The Scientific Revolution which occurred in the years 1550 to 1700, introduced the idea that the universe and everything in it worked accordingly to the laws of nature which were discovered by means of reason. The reasoning was straying away from previous thinking which entailed that God was the creator of the universe and had complete control over individual lives.…
From the earliest of times, we have observed the world around us through our senses. Observation is fundamental for survival; it also provides food for the mind. Our observations affected all of our intellectual efforts, and have played a critical role in science. Overtime, humans have become aware of the many factors influencing the making, interpretation and communication of scientific observations. For example, humans believed that the Earth was flat. This belief remained for many years until a famous scientist called Galileo proved it was spherical, through the use of his invention, the telescope. As we see, Perception itself, though corrects previous beliefs, is dependent on prior knowledge, which restricts the observant to a bounded set of rational possibilities.…
wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.” Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)…