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ERSC 2700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Falsifiability, Environmental Science, Deductive Reasoning

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School
Trent University
Department
Environmental & Resource Studies
Course
ERSC 2700
Professor
Micheal Fox

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Document Summary

Science: a means of understanding the world, way of thinking, a process. A scieniic quesion must be able to be examined through observaion: it must be possible to be falsiiable (prove it wrong) Inducive reasoning: a process of scieniic reasoning, known as inducion starts with observaions of the natural world and then leads to generalizaion. Further observaion may prove the generalizaion to be false: observaions can support or refute our hypothesis. Deducive reasoning: based on generalizaion that is assumed to be correct, conclusion is the logical result of the premises. Scieniic thinking is primarily based on inducive reasoning, deducive reasoning can also be scieniic if the premises are qualiied. Always an element of uncertainty in science: cannot proof anything. Probability is a quanitaive way of expressing certainty. Predicions made from scieniic data have probabiliies associated with them.

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Related Questions

1. If a strong argument has a false conclusion, then not all its premises can be true.

  True
  False

2. Reference works, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, are completely reliable sources of information, otherwise, they wouldn't be reference works.

  True
  False

3. You are rationally justified in accepting the view of the majority of experts in a given subject, even if this view turns out later to have been incorrect.

  True
  False

4. If someone has given bad reasons for a claim's acceptance, the claim should always be rejected.

  True
  False

5. If no reasons have been given for a claim's acceptance, the claim should always be rejected.

  True
  False

6. If you have reason to believe that an expert is biased, you should reject that expert's claim as false.

  True
  False

7. If we 'suspend judgment'€ on a claim, then we think the claim is false.

  True
  False

8. Our most reliable source of information about the world is our own observations.

  True
  False

9. Media consolidation (otherwise known as "media concentration") refers to the process of larger companies buying up smaller media companies.

  True
  False

10. Choose the answer that best characterizes the following passage: "The ensemble played an encore at last year's concert, and I'm pretty sure they played one the year before as well. So they will most likely play an encore at this year's concert."

  This passage is neither an attempt at an argument nor an attempt at an explanation. It is just a series of claims.
  This passage is an explanation.
  This passage is an attempt at a deductive argument.
  This passage is an attempt at an inductive argument.

11. Choose the answer that best characterizes the following passage: "Sheila's clarinet must be French. It's a Leblanc, and all Leblanc instruments are made in France."

  This passage is neither an argument nor an explanation.
  This passage is a deductive argument.
  This passage is an inductive argument.
  This passage is both deductive and inductive.

Written Assignment: Biology and Technology in the Real World

Addresses course outcomes 1-4:

recognize and explain how the scientific method is used to solve problems

make observations and discriminate between scientific and pseudoscientific explanations

weigh evidence and make decisions based on strengths and limitations of scientific knowledge and the scientific method

use knowledge of biological principles, the scientific method, and appropriate technologies to ask relevant questions, develop hypotheses, design and conduct experiments, interpret results, and draw conclusions

1. Select one of the topics listed below.

2. Find at least three information sources related to the topic. You can find assistance with searching for articles at the UMUC Library Subject Guides at http://libguides.umuc.edu/science.

3. Write a 750-1500 word paper, excluding references and title page. You must read the information sources that you find and summarize the information in your own words, addressing each of the questions and expectations for your chosen topic. Extensive quotes from the article are discouraged. Use APA style for citing references, see https://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/apa_tutorial.cfm

4. Post your assignment to the Assignment folder by the due date listed in the course schedule.

Topics (select one from the list below or from the expanded list of topics posted on November 16th in the announcements section)

a) Genetically modified organisms (GMOs). What is the purpose genetic engineering of crop plants and domestic animals? Briefly explain how GMOs are created. What foods in your supermarket contain GMOs? Are foods that contain GMOs safe for human consumption? What types of regulations exist for these foods? Clearly explain your reasoning for each answer.

b) Stem cells. Your friend had a spinal cord injury after a bad car accident. The medical team has decided that he is a good candidate for a clinical trial using stem cell therapy. Your friend has not had a biology course since high school, so you decide to write him a letter sharing your knowledge of stem cells. Include in your letter a description of the biology of stem cells and how these cells are unique from other cells. Contrast the different types of stem cells, including pros and cons of each. Explain how stems cells are can be used to treat diseases and injury, with special focus on spinal cord injuries. Conclude with your own opinion.

c) Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) and tar sands (oil sands). With society's dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels, the oil & gas industry is turning to the use of hydraulic fracturing and tar (oil) sands to extract natural gas and oil respectively. A friend asks you "What's all this controversy in the news about fracking and tar sands?" Briefly explain to your friend how hydraulic fracturing and tar (oil) sands are used to obtain these fossil fuels. Then, in more detail, describe the environmental problems that may result from these processes and why they are controversial. Issues that may be addressed involves, but are not limited to, water, air and soil pollution, effects on human health, effects on other species and natural ecosystems. Finally, give your opinions on possible solutions to these environmental problems, with your reasoning backed by the references that you studied.

What exactly was Hooker's response to Darwin's, Origin of Species? Thank you for your help. I need help deciphering what his opinions truly were.

Hooker, J. D. 1859. [Review of] On the origin of species. Gardeners' Chronicle (31 December): 1052. Part 1.

From the above expressions it will be inferred that we have risen from the perusal of Mr. DARWIN'S book much impressed with its importance, and have moreover found it to be so dependent on the phenomena of horticultural operations, for its facts and results, and so full of experiments that may be repeated and discussed by intelligent gardeners, and of ideas that may sooner fructify in their minds than in those of any other class of naturalists, that we shall be doing them (and we hope also science) a service by dwelling in some detail upon its contents. Thus much we may premise, that it is a book teeming with deep thoughts on numberless simple and complex phenomena of life; that its premises in almost all cases appear to be correct; that its reasoning is apparently close and sound, its style clear, and we need hardly add its subject and manner equally attractive and agreeable; it is also a perfectly ingenuous book, bold in expressions as in thought where the author adduces what he considers clear evidence in his favour, frank in the statement of objections to the hypotheses or conclusions founded on its facts and reasonings; and uniformly courteous to antagonistic doctrines. In fine, whatever may be thought of Mr. DARWIN'S ultimate conclusions, it cannot be denied that it would be difficult in the whole range of the literature of science to find a book so exclusively devoted to the development of theoretical inquiries, which at the same time is throughout so full of conscientious care, so fair in argument, and so considerate in tone. . . . Hitherto most [naturalists] have, as we have already observed, contented themselves with the hypothesis that they were independently created, and the minority have clung to the only other explanation hitherto conceived, that they have all been created by variation from a single first-created living organism, or a few such. Now it must be borne in mind that both these views are mere hypotheses in a scientific point of view; neither has any inherent or prescriptive right to a preference in the mind of the impartial inquirer; but the most superficial observation will show that the hypothesis of original creations is incapable of absolute proof, except the operation be witnessed by credible naturalists, and can only be supported by facts that are either not conclusive against the opposite doctrine, or may be regarded as equally favourable to it; and this hypothesis is hence placed at a disadvantage in comparison with that of the creation of species by variation, which takes its stand on the familiar fact that species do depart from the likeness of their progenitors, both in a wild and domestic state. On the other hand the hypothesis of creation by variation labours under the disadvantage of being founded upon a series of phenomena, the action of each of which individually, as explained by Mr. DARWIN, would appear to prevent the possibility of species retaining their characters for any length of time, and it therefore appears at first sight opposed to the undisputed fact, that many hundreds of animals and plants have transmitted their characters unchanged (or nearly so) through countless generations, and covered, even within the historic period, many square miles of country each with millions of its exact counterpart. To explain this anomaly and to raise this hypothesis of creations by variation to the rank of a scientific theory, is the object of Mr. DARWIN'S book, and to do this he has endeavoured to invent and prove such an intelligible rationale of the operation of variation, as will account for many species having been developed from a few in strict adaptation to existing conditions, and to show good cause how these apparently fleeting changelings may by the operation of natural laws be so far fixed as to reconcile both the naturalist and the common observer to the idea, that what in all his experience are immutable forms of life may have once worn another guise. The hypothesis itself is a very old one; it was, as all the world knows, strongly advocated by LAMARCK, and later still by the author of the "Vestiges of the Natural History of the Creation," but neither of these authors were able to suggest even a plausible method according to which Nature might have proceeded in producing suitable varieties, getting rid of intermediate forms, and giving a temporary stability to such as are recognised as species by all observers. Mr. DARWIN has been more successful, though whether completely so or not the future alone can show. We shall proceed to examine his method in another article.