ENVI 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, Reductionism, Sensemaking
25 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Core case study: a story about a forest. Hubbard brook experimental forest in new hampshire. 1960s compared the loss of water and nutrients from an uncut forest (control site) with one that had been stripped (experimental site) They found that the stripped site had 30-40% more runoff, more dissolved nutrients and more soil erosion. Generate data and create theories, models, and laws that can explain how and why nature works. Science: the explicit sense-making system that makes use of theory to explain phenomena and which employs an empirical epistemological standard in the assessment of the correctness of explanations. Theory: a logically coherent group of propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena. Hypothesis: an account of relationships between classes of phenomena derived from theory that is capable of empirical falsification; a potential explanation. Explanation: an account of relationships between classes of phenomena that has been subjected to empirical testing and has not been falsified.
