The document discusses six ways to acquire knowledge: 1. Tenacity - Acquiring knowledge through habit or superstition without a mechanism for error correction. 2. Intuition - Acquiring knowledge through guesses or hunches that can be misleading without a way to determine accuracy. 3. Authority - Unquestioningly accepting knowledge from respected sources without a way to validate it. 4. Rationalism - Using logical reasoning which can reach incorrect conclusions if premises or steps are flawed. 5. Empiricism - Acquiring knowledge through subjective experience alone which lacks control and ignores unobserved cases. 6. Science - Acquiring knowledge through objective evidence and testing of hypotheses according to a standardized procedure open to scrutiny

1. ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE

2. Six Ways to Acquire Knowledge Tenacity Intuition Authority Rationalism Empiricism Science

3. 1. Tenacity Examples: “ Good research can only be done by those who are below 30’s” “ MIS has too many DFD’s and is complex” “ Statistics is too inefficient for real use” Exposure : The more we see something, the more we like it Tenacity has No guarantee of accuracy No mechanism for error correction Knowledge from tenacity is prejudism Knowledge based on superstition or habit

4. 2. Intuition Examples: I think he is a nice person It’s probably going to rain today We do not really understand why we believe it No way to separate accurate from inaccurate knowledge Can be used to form hypotheses Can be very misleading Guesswork: An approach that is not based on reasoning or inference

5. 3. Authority Examples: Religion Totalitarian government Rules our parents taught us No way to validate or question the knowledge Not the same as asking an expert – we can accept, reject, or challenge an expert Teachers are experts , not authorities Accepted because it comes from a respected source

6. 4. Rationalism (Reasoning) Logical deduction Assume knowledge is correct if the correct reasoning process is used Middle ages relied almost exclusively on rationalism Important for theory and pure math A mathematical proof is rationalism at its best Theoretical physics … experimental physics Easy to reach incorrect conclusions False premises Mistakes in the reasoning or steps skipped Use rationalism to arrive at a hypothesis, then test with the scientific method Acquisition of knowledge through reasoning

7. 5. Empiricism “I have experienced it, therefore it is true” Experience is subjective and hard to control “I wrote 3 programs without designing and they worked – designs are worthless! Who wrote them? What programs? Was the design present but just unwritten? Much of computer “science” is just empiricism Acquiring knowledge through experience

8. 6. Science Based on reality Scientists have to look at the fire , not the shadows Separate personal beliefs , perceptions, biases, attitudes, emotions We all have biases; science helps us ignore them Based on objectively observed evidence Testing ideas empirically according to a specific testing procedure that is open to public inspection

9. Scientific Method © Jeff Offutt, 2007 Identify a Problem The most creative part Form Hypothesis Design Experiment Conduct Experiment Hypothesis Testing Disseminate Results Reject Hypothesis Accept Hypothesis

10. Use…… Much of life is about solving problems Education is not about skills , it is about knowledge Use your education knowledge to help you: Think rationally Question authority Solve all of life’s problems