PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Eadweard Muybridge, Naturalistic Observation, Frequency Distribution

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Sherri Atwood

Document Summary

Two kinds of doctors: dogmatists(meaning belief) thought the best way to understand illness was to develop theories about the body"s function. Empiricists(meaning experiences) thought the best way to understand illness was to observe sick people. People who visited dogmatists tended to die which game rose to the word dogmatism(to describe the tendency for people to cling to their assumptions). Empiricists gave rise to the word empiricism(belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation). When scientists set out to develop a theory(hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomenon), they follow the rule of parsimony(simplest theory that explains all the evidence is the best one)(parcere meaning to spare ). William ockham suggested that it makes sense to start with the simplest theory and then make the theory more complicated only if one must (like e=mc^2). When evidence is consistent with a theory, it increases our confidence in it, but it never makes us completely certain.