PADP 7120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Karl Popper, Inductive Reasoning, Falsifiability

• School: University of Georgia
• Department: Public Administration and Policy
• Course: PADP 7120
• Professor: Moldogaziev

Document Summary

Lecture 2 : developing & testing theories with data: theories, at the foundational parts, theories created through one of two ways (1) inductive reasoning (focus) > specific to general. Moving from a particular observation to a general theory. Example with data: specific data shows correlation between wealth & democratic voting in maryland, wealthier voters vote democratic, generalization > wealthier voters in us vote more democratic (2) deductive reasoning > general to specific. Applying a general statement to a specific entity: popperian falsification. A statement is only scientific if it can be falsified (proven incorrect) by evidence. Falsifiable & thus scientific > if wealthier people voted republican in another state, the theory achieved through inductive reasoning would be falsified & thus is a scientific theory. Not falsifiable & thus not scientific > statements postulating existence (i. e. unicorns exist. ) One cannot prove with evidence that unicorns do not exist. Time series/temporal variation > variation one time.