PHI 30 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Informal Logic, Scientific Reports, Pseudoscience
Document Summary
Introduction to scientific hypotheses and the kinds of reasoning used to justify such hypotheses. Emphasis on adequate justification, criteria, and strategies for distinguishing scientific from pseudoscientific theories. Text book: understanding scientific reasoning develops the requisite critical reasoning skills students need to bolster their scientific and technological literacy. The authors teach students how to understand and critically evaluate the scientific information they encounter in both textbooks and the popular media. With its focus on scientific pedagogy, understanding scientific reasoning helps students learn how to examine scientific reports with a reasonable degree of sophistication. The book also explains how to reason through case studies using the same informal logic skills employed by scientists. Now included is a new section on model development that deals with the distinction between data that result from an experimental test of a model and data that lead to the creation of a model.
