ENVS 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Bertrand Russell, Deductive Reasoning, Reductionism
13 Apr 2016
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Deductive logic: 2 premises; if they are true then your conclusion must be true. Inductive arguments: case specific to general, conclusion is not for sure making assumptions likely . Inductive is frowned upon by scientists, but is where the creativity lies. Specific does not always predict general~ bertrand russell. Newton used the power of mathematics in the study of the universe. Every hypothesis has an associated probability aiming to strengthen validity. How many times does a hypothesis have to be wrong to discard itself. If you have a theory that fits everything, it explains nothing. Pragmatic: uses anything that works, ex. deduction, induction experiments, mathematics, excludes everything that doesn"t work. Continuous process of refinement of the method itself. Four approaches: observation of specific facts or traits, formulation of generalizations about such phenomena, production of casual hypotheses relating different phenomena, testing of the casual hypotheses by further observation and experimentation.
