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Science: a way of knowing. Major Methods of Science. Observation: descriptions of natural phenomena usually in the search for patterns in nature Experiment: manipulation of nature to examine a phenomenon. Deductive Method.
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Major Methods of Science • Observation: descriptions of natural phenomena usually in the search for patterns in nature • Experiment: manipulation of nature to examine a phenomenon
Deductive Method • Most typical for natural philosophers following the rediscovery of Aristotle by western Europe • Explanatory method of Plato and Pythagoras • Clearly expounded by René Descartes in 1637 [Discours de la méthode (Discourse on the Method)]. René Descartes 1596-1650
Inductive or Empirical Method • Based on observation • The experimental method is a subset of the inductive method • Francis Bacon proposed the Great Instauration • NovumOrganum(1620) Francis Bacon 1561-1626
Human reason can be decieved in the following ways: • Idylls of the Tribe (incorrect inference of cause and effect) • Idylls of the Den (one’s views are influenced by others and may be upheld by ignoring contravening evidence) • Idylls of the Marketplace (false arguments can be convincing due to ambiguity of communication) • Idylls of the Theater (theories about the world can be false)
William Gilbert • Contemporary of Bacon • Did not recognize Bacon as a natural philosopher • Bacon critical of Gilbert’s explanations • The Alchemists have made a philosophy out of a few experiments of the furnace and Gilbert our countryman hath made a philosophy out of observations of the lodestone. • [Gilbert] has himself become a magnet; that is, he has ascribed too many things to that force and built a ship out of a shell. William Gilbert 1544-1603
Explanation • Hypothesis • Theory • Principle • Law
Attributes of Pseudoscience • Anything is possible (cannot be falsified) • Vague, exaggerated, untested claims • Refutation of alternative theory, but no material confirmation of the claim
biology - geology chemistry physics mathematics COMPLEXITY
Construction of Stonehenge • Earthen banks (~3100 BCE) • Wooden Building (~3000 BCE) • Bluestones (~2600 BCE) • Sarsen Stones (2600-2400 BCE) • Final arrangement (2280-1600 BCE)
Claudius Ptolemy ~90-168 CE Aristotle of Stagira 348-322 BCE Eudoxus of Cnidus 408-355 BCE
Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543
Giordano Bruno • Dominican and non-trinitarian • Praised Copernican system • On trial and burned at the stake for heresy of Arianism (1548-1600)
Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler 1571-1630 1546-1601
Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion • Law of Ellipses • Equal Area Law • (Period)2 /(Major Axis)3 is the same for all planets.
Galileo Galilei • Direct observations of the heavens with his improved telescope • Saw blemishes on the moon and (later) on the sun • Recorded the Medician stars and explained their changing positions as moons circling Jupiter 1564-1642
Isaac Newton • Law of Gravity: the strength of the gravitational force between two bodies of mass is relative to the inverse square of the distance between their centers of mass. • Used this concept of gravity to explain Kepler’s Laws of motion. 1642-1727
Robert Hooke, Edmond Halley, John Flamsteed Edmond Halley 1656-1742 Robert Hooke 1635-1703 John Flamsteed 1646-1719
