PS295 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Empiricism, Falsifiability, Epistemological Pluralism
The Scientific Approach
Empiricism: practice of relying on observation to draw conclusions about the world
Systematic Empiricism: structure observations in systematic ways so that scientists can
use them to draw valid conclusions about nature of world
Public verification:
-research findings can be observed, verified, and replicated by others
-ensures phenomena are real and observable
-makes science self correcting
Solvable problems:
-can investigate only those questions that are answerable given current
knowledge/research techniques
Scientists' Jobs:
-in the business of discovering and documenting new phenomena, patterns, and
relationships
-develop and evaluate explanations of the phenomena they see
Theories and Models:
-a theory is a set of propositions that attempts to explain the relationships among a set of
Document Summary
Empiricism: practice of relying on observation to draw conclusions about the world. Systematic empiricism: structure observations in systematic ways so that scientists can use them to draw valid conclusions about nature of world. Research findings can be observed, verified, and replicated by others. Can investigate only those questions that are answerable given current knowledge/research techniques. In the business of discovering and documenting new phenomena, patterns, and relationships. Develop and evaluate explanations of the phenomena they see. A theory is a set of propositions that attempts to explain the relationships among a set of concepts. Theory specifies how and why concepts are related. Post hoc explanations: explanations that are made after the fact. To provide a convincing test of a theory, researchers make specific research hypotheses a priori (before collecting the data) Theories themselves are not tested directly, rather are tested through hypotheses derived from the theory. Hypothesis is an if-then statement of the general form if a, then b .
