Anthropology 2229F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Radiocarbon Dating, Deductive Reasoning, Classical Mechanics
18 Jul 2012
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Analytical/reasoning methods: way to come up with objective answers, allows you to figure out what is true. Multiple lines of independent evidence: stronger conclusion if you have more than one line of evidence that prove that your answer is correct: better than having only one line of evidence, reduces likelihood of error. If a certain set of ideas re true, then i should expect to find this in my data; but should also state if this is not true i should find this. Can"t just look for proof of your idea, need to look for proof against your idea. Has to be testable, otherwise it is just speculation. Newtonian physics: required a great deal of testing and changes to figure out the truth and added to things that. Need to prove certain ideas are wrong and discard them; cannot prove the absolute truth within one lifetime; but if good ideas last through time.
