Questions tagged [scientific-method]
The Scientific Method is meant to answer questions based on observation and experimentation.
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Is there a biological description of "chakras" or is the concept of "chakras" mere pseudoscience?
It is widely claimed that we have many chakras(7 major chakras) situated at different locations along the spinal cord. Each of the chakras is said to be associated with certain energy channels, the ...
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Is the observer (a person) embedded in the physical model?
During my studies of physics, I noticed that the discussion of a physical theory includes the discussion of the interaction between the observer (the person who makes the experiments) and the observed ...
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Does Foucault's "power-knowledge" contradict the scientific method?
I am trying to understand Foucault’s power-knowledge concept.
It seems that Foucault viewed knowledge not as an understanding of an objective reality but a way to exert power? (1)
It seems that one ...
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Science, where is the difference between law and principle?
Theories contain laws, definitions, explain and predict aspects of nature.
A law in itself does not explain, but only reflects cause-effect relationships of empirical data (usually in the form of a ...
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How philosophers reason about closeness of one theory to the other theory (approximation, learnability, discovery of theory)?
Some theory is tuple of set of axioms (including ones that are statements about data), set of inference rules and set of already deduced theorems (statements) in it. Theory can be discovered by human ...
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Is there a proof that we can't prove a physical theory?
I am thinking of physical theories (e.g. Newtonian Mechanics) as axiomatic systems. We have a list of axioms and from there we can derive theorems, make predictions etc. If the prediction don't agree ...
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How should Feyerabend's "Anything goes" be interpreted?
Paul Feyerabend, in his response to supposed methodologies used in science (falsification, research programs, normal science and paradigm revolutions, etc.) in general and of Imre Lakatos' research ...
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How does science treat supernatural claims?
The following claim X,
Something had a round trip from the Earth to the Mars within 1 second
might be treated by science as a supernatural claim because it violates the natural law (i.e. speed limit ...
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Inhowfar is scientific inquiry modeled on the interrogation of witches?
(Carolyn) Merchant sees proof in the link between persecution of witches and development of modern science in the work of Francis Bacon, one of the reputed father of the new scientific method, showing ...
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What is the name of the idea that knowledge is dependent on past experience?
What would you call the idea that theories and knowledge more generally is merely the product of our past interactions with their associated elements? For example, if I were to let go of a ball, one ...
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how can one distinguish between disorder and the supernatural?
Many strange things happen to us when we are asleep.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
...
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Does Bayesian epistemology solve Hume’s problem of induction?
Or, does it just sidestep it? Or, is it just completely unrelated to it? I’m having trouble seeing what the connection might be. It seems to me that Bayesians solve it by saying, take:
Your prior ...
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A question about the Ludwing Boltzmann idea of a scientific theory expressed in the book "On the significance of theories(1890)"
I don't understand a passage in which the great physicist Ludwig Boltzmann , talking about his epistemological point of view, says
I am of the opinion that the task of a theory consists in
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Are there truths that the scientific method cannot explore, but maybe alternative methods can? [duplicate]
Are there truths that the scientific method cannot explore, but maybe alternative methods can? Does the scientific method subsume all possible valid ways to obtain true knowledge? Or are there ...
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Is it possible to have a scientific review of a method if the author doesn't have direct experience of it?
It seems like it is possible to conduct scientific research without actually getting close to the sample/specimen. However, what if the "sample" of the research is a method? For example, ...
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References on philosophical aspects of experimental design
I am an engineer working in molecular neuroscience field, hence getting exposure in both solving practical problems (how to image fish brain) and molecular bio questions (do neurons X connect to ...
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Is faith required to believe any axiomatic assumption the scientific method is built upon?
It's my understanding that the scientific method builds upon certain axiomatic assumptions, such as uniformitarianism and the principle of induction. Is faith required to believe these axiomatic ...
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To what extent does a hypothesis have to be testable to be regarded as scientific?
In the vein of verificationism and related to problems of falsifiability as per Karl Popper, I ask the following:
Let's say hypothesis X is proposed in order to account for a certain set of observable ...
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Why are theories of Greek philosophers so ineffectual?
The philosophy of science is to explain many natural phenomena with simple and least number of axioms(=hypothesis).
As Albert Einstein writes in his book, The Evolution of Physics at page number 56:
...
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What's the role of logic in logical positivism?
I'm reading up on a bit of the ideas of logical positivism. It seems that the main components were the distinction of synthetic and analytic statements, and the verification principle. Without giving ...
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Should scientist be free to research anything they want? [closed]
Should scientists be free to research whatever they want, assuming it does not harm/hurt anyone or animals.
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A concept which "shows" why are we limited by speed of light?
These are my thoughts about the above:
So, lets say at a given time t, I am in a room, and it has a state, which describes all the info about that state. Assume for simplicity that the room and its ...
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Why is it valid to ponder if unexplained phosphine on Venus may have an biological source?
(This is my first question here and I apologize and can edit if it's out of place or formed improperly or has other issues.)
The September 20, 2020 news of phosphine found in the clouds on Venus has ...
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Scientific inquiry not using the 5-step method
As a result of my recent interest in the field of epistemology, I read that there is no such thing as a unique scientific method.
However, during my medical studies I had been told that every ...
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Top-down vs bottom-up approaches in science?
I am a student of a natural science but very interested in philosophy. During my studies, I have noted a perceived difference in how various disciplines approach the explanation of data they obtain. I ...
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Why a theory is still used after proven wrong?
When a new theory is introduced and predicts phenomena that the previous theory couldn't should the previous theory be abandoned? For example Einstein's Special Relativity. We still use Newtonian ...
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When dependance exists between two quantities?
Suppose we have two quanitities X and Y and we try to find out if a third quantity Z depends on them.
1st case Changing the X holding Y constant doesn't change Z.
2nd case Changing the Y holding X ...
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Can the scientific method ever disprove Magic and Miracles (Simulated)?
I have seen the idea behind this question before but I don’t think it was well formulated. Here is my attempt to ponder on reality based on Plato's “Myth of the Cave” and show how valid it still is.
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Is the "SAID principle" science?
Within sports science the SAID principle asserts that the human body adapts specifically to imposed demands.
For example lifting heavy weights make you better at lifting heavy weights, whereas running ...
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Methodological universalities in Physics
Is there any methodological characteristic universal in Physics?
Even if some branches of Physics lose their reproducibility, their experimental testing, their deterministic predictivity isn't some ...
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Relation of reproducibility and the lack of contigencies with the scientific method
What is the relation of reproducibility and the lack of contigencies with the scientific method?
Quantum mechanics and Statistical physics/mechanics are vurnerable/suspectible to contigencies. We ...
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Epistemology, Scientific Method and Formal Theory, Economics
Why is Economics considered not to apply the scientific method in its pure form, nor develop scientific theories and how so?
Trade and Government policies(For political economics/positive political ...
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Can a data-driven scientific method produce new knowledge?
Let us classify the state of knowledge into four simple categories: what do we know (known knowns)? What are the limitations of what we know (known unknowns)? What is our degree of certainty about ...
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Is science based on David Hume's "A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence"?
"A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. … no
testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless the testimony
be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more ...
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Using the Duck-Typing method in scientific context [closed]
Some programming languages use Duck Typing to determine types of Objects, based on their methods and properties and not their declared type.
Simplified, it goes down to the premise
"If it walks ...
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Is scepticism about human-caused climate change a pseudoscience?
National Center for Science Education, have described climate change denial as pseudoscience. However,IMHO there are some valid arguments based on empirical data that contradict the "hockey stick" ...
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Wittgenstein on Mechanics
Can someone explain what Wittgenstein was trying to say in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus ? Specifically propositions 6.341-6.343. What does he mean when he says that a system like Newtonian Mechanics ...
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How to reconcile that physicists and science educators use the word "theory" incompatibly?
When science denialists say "just a theory", they are roundly chastised. Science educators (teachers, reporters, essayists, etc) are united that the word theory has a strong requirement:
Berkeley: "a ...
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What is Quine’s Confirmation theory?
I have just read that Quine relies on his confirmation theory to establish if a scientific theory is “valid” or not. But I am not sure to have understood what is Quine’s confirmation theory and why ...
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Is phenomenology a science?
Is phenomenology a science? I know Husserl was fond of saying it is. Specifically, is any of it scientific? By "phenomenology" I mean
the study of structures of consciousness as
experienced from ...
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Would answering belief challenges be the same as the scientific method?
Let's say I believe this statement: "all swans are white". Someone comes and asks me these Socratic questions: "is it true that all swans are white?", "is there an instance that a swan is not white?", ...
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What is the historical relationship between physics and philosophy?
I often hear people say that physics is/was part of philosophy or that philosophy gave birth to physics but I think this isn't correct.
Imagine a big country called anonati. After a civil war, ...
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Explanation vs. prediction in statistics and in the philosophy of science?
In the realm of statistics and machine learning, a lot of discussion has arisen recently around the difference between explaining and predicting: That the two are not the same, and that the difference ...
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What are the accomplishments of critical theory vs. logical positivism
Coming from a natural science viewpoint, I find that logical positivism is much more important for scientific research than is critical theory.
I've read the critics/flaws of logical positivism, and ...
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Can a theory that is now wrong be right in the future?
For example, we take as granted that energy is conserved (energy conservation principle). Imagine that someone “builds” a theory where the energy conservation doesn't apply. The scientific community ...
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What are the relationships between Foucault's medical gaze, scientific investigation, and Buddhist detachment?
From this note from a clinical psychologist, the Foucault's gaze is described as:
... with this powerful gaze the physician could penetrate illusion and see through to the underlying reality, that ...
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Name of Principle Giving Precedence to a More General Hypothesis
As far as I know, there is a principle that gives precedence to a theory that is more general than a more specific one, i.e the more general one is more acceptable.
What is the name of that principle?
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How can the credibility of dietary recommendations of medical sciences and EBM be upheld in light of a history of radical changes of its claims?
I know the typical argument is that science is a work in progress and is constantly self-improving.
However, self-improvement demands some continuity in claims. For example, relativistic physics was ...
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Is it scientific or a logical error to claim something is true because I can't think of another explanation
The situation
Let's say, someone is wrong on the internet. She says
The forums on that newspaper article is closed. Apparently the newspaper want to suppress public debate.
I reply:
That's ...
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Can hypotheses have parts that are supported or falsified individually?
Can an hypothesis that is part of the scientific method have multiple parts which can be falsified or supported individually?
Let's say the experiments provide evidence that Part A models correctly ...
