501 Critical Reading Questions
Critical Reading Questions
Download 0.98 Mb. Pdf ko'rish
|
501 Critical Reading Questions
- Bu sahifa navigatsiya:
- Verification
Critical Reading Questions
(1) (5) (10) (15) (20) (25) (30) 2 0 3 study. Deductive reasoning is the way in which predictions are used to test a hypothesis. Testing In the twentieth century, philosopher Karl Popper introduced the idea that a hypothesis must be falsifiable; that is, it must be capable of being demonstrated wrong. A hypothesis must make specific predictions; these predictions can be tested with concrete measurements to support or refute the hypothesis. For instance, Albert Einstein’s theory of gen- eral relativity makes a few specific predictions about the structure of space and flow of time, such as the prediction that light bends in a strong gravitational field, and the amount of bending depends in a pre- cise way on the strength of the gravitational field. Observations made of a 1919 solar eclipse supported this hypothesis against other possi- ble hypotheses, such as Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity, which did not make such a prediction. British astronomers used the eclipse to prove Einstein’s theory and therefore, eventually replaced Newton’s theory. Verification Probably the most important aspect of scientific reasoning is verifi- cation. Verification is the process of determining whether the hypothesis is in accord with empirical evidence, and whether it will continue to be in accord with a more generally expanded body of evi- dence. Ideally, the experiments performed should be fully described so that anyone can reproduce them, and many scientists should inde- pendently verify every hypothesis. Results that can be obtained from experiments performed by many are termed reproducible and are given much greater weight in evaluating hypotheses than non-repro- ducible results. Evaluation Falsificationism argues that any hypothesis, no matter how respected or time-honored, must be discarded once it is contradicted by new reli- able evidence. This is, of course, an oversimplification, since individ- ual scientists inevitably hold on to their pet theory long after contrary evidence has been found. This is not always a bad thing. Any theory can be made to correspond to the facts, simply by making a few adjust- ments—called “auxiliary hypothesis”—so as to bring it into corre- spondence with the accepted observations. The choice of when to reject one theory and accept another is inevitably up to the individual scientist, rather than some methodical law. 501 Download 0.98 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
Ma'lumotlar bazasi mualliflik huquqi bilan himoyalangan ©fayllar.org 2024
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling