Alan Chalmers Use Of The Scientific Method

Alan Chalmers Use Of The Scientific Method
Science enables critical evaluation of phenomena in the world around us, based on evidential hypotheses. The use of the scientific method has allowed
reliable scientific claims to be made, leading to the belief that science is rational. A claim made on the grounds of scientific experimentation is more
widely accepted than a statement perceived to be common sense. However, scientific experimentation cannot explain the rationality of science. Over
time, the theories of philosophy in science have evolved in an attempt to explain why science is rational.
In 1976, scientific philosopher, Alan Chalmers, presented his view on thescientific method: "Scientific knowledge is proven knowledge. Scientific
theories are derived in some rigorous way from ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Predictions of the outcome of an experiment are fundamental to scientific investigation; induction enables predictions. Therefore, I don't believe that
induction should be totally disregarded, but should be used in conjunction with Popper's theory of falsification. The disproof and falsification of a
hypothesis or principle is not necessarily a bad thing, and can lead to innovation and further scientific research and investigation. I agree with the fact
that scientific knowledge is based on falsifiable conjectures and hypotheses, and no rock–solid
... Get more on HelpWriting.net ...

The Multivisions of Multiculturalism Essay
The Multivisions of Multiculturalism
ABSTRACT: The questions suggested by the term "multiculturalism" range far and wide, embracing: questions of inclusion; questions of criteria;
questions of self–identity; and questions of the meaning of multiculturalism. In this essay I provide a framework: (i) that allows us to begin a discussion
that might answer such questions; (ii) that illuminates why it is that such a modest aim is the most we can hope for at this time; and (iii) that provides
an understanding of what we can do in a multicultural world in order to illuminate what we should do. This framework will reject both the idea of
toleration as found in Berlin's conception of human choice and will speak of as maximal multiculturalism, ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
This framework will prove to parallel a classic Hobbesianism, a universally undesirable result that will, paradoxically, provide further direction and
reason for hope.
1. One immediate response by many in the USA to such questions is an appeal to the ideal of tolerance–an ideal that Sir Isaiah Berlin, perhaps more
than any thinker in our time, has defended.
Berlin's central argument for toleration is that belief in the one true view has repeatedly led to disaster: "One belief, more than any other, is
responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the altars of the great historical ideals... This is the belief that somewhere, in the past or in the future, in
divine revelation or the mind of the individual thinker, in the pronouncements of history or science, or in the simple heart of an uncorrupted good man,
there is a final solution."(1) A second argument that Berlin offers for toleration is that we have no right to insist that all be educated in our way, unless
we know that we are pure and good–precisely what we do not and cannot know. As Tolstoy argued, the history of education is a history of tyranny,
where each new school "struck off one yoke only to put another in its place."(2) "But about one thing they were all agreed: that one

Epistemology: Can Warranted False Belief Escape Gettier...
Can warranted false belief escape Gettier problems? The nonpartisan debate One important task of Epistemology is to find an analysis of knowledge
that can both fulfil our intuitions and is genuinely informative. The traditional analysis of knowledge is tripartite. This so called "JTB" (Justified
True Belief) account holds that for a subject "S" to know a proposition "p" (a) S must believe that p, (b) p must be true and (c) S must be justified in
believing p (Ichikawa & Steup, 2014). In 1963 Edmund Gettier published a now–famous paper demonstrating the insufficiency of the JTB account.
Here I will focus on the "nonpartisan" debate in the analysis of knowledge, which centres around the question of whether or not it is possible for a
false belief... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
A fallibilist answer Given this argument, why should we consider fallibilism? Howard–Snyder, Howard–Snyder and Feit (2003) suggest that sometimes
the only thing that keeps a belief from being knowledge is its falsity. They give the following example. Unbeknownst to the visitors, the zebra Zak
died of a sudden heart attack yesterday and has been replaced by a painted mule that looks exactly identical to Zak. Nothing about the situation from
the viewer's perspective would suggest that they are not seeing a zebra. In a close possible world, in which Zak did not die, all other things would
have been equal. Intuitively it would seem that the only thing that changes between worlds is the truth value of the belief: "there is a zebra in the
zoo". A satisfying account of knowledge thus has to make sense of our feeling that sometimes a false belief can be warranted, while avoiding Gettier
cases. Howard–Snyder et al. argue that both requirements can be met, using the following

An Overview of Modern Philosophies of Education
Overview
Philosophy means "love of wisdom." It is made up of two Greek words, philo, meaning love, and sophos, meaning wisdom. Philosophy helps teachers
to reflect on key issues and concepts in education, usually through such questions as: What is being educated? What is the good life? What is
knowledge? What is the nature of learning? And What is teaching? Philosophers think about the meaning of things and interpretation of that meaning.
Even simple statements, such as "What should be learned? Or What is adolescence?" set up raging debates that can have major implications. For
example, what happens if an adolescent commits a serious crime? One interpretation may hide another. If such a young person is treated as an adult
criminal, what ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Plato also believed that the soul is fully formed prior to birth and is perfect and at one with the Universal Being. The birth process checks this
perfection, so education requires bringing latent ideas (fully formed concepts) to consciousness.
In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each individual's abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve society. The
curricular emphasis is subject matter of mind: literature, history, philosophy, and religion. Teaching methods focus on handling ideas through lecture,
discussion, and Socratic dialogue (a method of teaching that uses questioning to help students discover and clarify knowledge). Introspection, intuition,
insight, and whole–part logic are used to bring to consciousness the forms or concepts which are latent in the mind. Character is developed through
imitating examples and heroes.
Pragmatism –is the philosophy of considering practical consequences or real effects to be vital components of meaning and truth. Pragmatism is
generally considered to have originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Pierce, who first stated the pragmatic maxim. It came to fruition in
the early twentieth–century philosophies of William James and John Dewey and, in a more unorthodox manner, in the works of George Santayana.
Other important aspects of pragmatism include anti–Cartesianism, radical empiricism,

Philosophy for Children Essay
I. The concept of the Community of Inquiry
Central to the heart of P4C lies the notion of a community of inquiry. Originally a term from Pierce to reference interaction among scientists, the
concept of "COI" dominates the discussion of educational revisionism as presented by commentators on the P4C movement. The key description
marking a COI is: a group (a social setting) of individuals who use dialogue (interaction among participants) to search out the problematic borders of a
puzzling concept (inquiry as philosophical.) Implicit in the ideal workings of this group are two key concepts:
a demonstration of thinking that is caring (each member is supported and allowed to be an integral member of the community), creative (new ideas ...
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Two of these controversial issues are:
the ontological nature of the individual vs. that of the community the criteria of a "good" reason (the question of truth) or discovery vs. construction
It is important to recognize the presence of these issues within the P4C method and to explore how these issues color our vision of that method. We
will note certain tensions among writers about P4C in terms of which metaphysical vision best embraces the ideals behind the COI. In the sections
below I will suggest also a series of questions that are provoked by discussions of the COI which will hopefully lead to further reflection and dialogue
with the P4C community itself.
II. Individual vs. Community
In his article "The Five Communities" (1) David Kennedy offers us a rich differentiation of a COI into communities of gesture, language, mind, love,
and interest. (2) The concepts of gesture and language highlight the nuances of human communication that embrace physical stance, the unspoken
presentation of the body itself as response and the powerful nature of spoken language as enriched by "stress, pitch, contour and juncture" (3) in
addition to one's personal vocabulary and idiosyncratic use of words. By his phrase, "community of mind" Kennedy attempts to capture a
phenomenological sense of mind as active agent immersed in a spatio–temporal–affective locus which is ever changing. He draws a portrait of the
situatedness of thought which nevertheless struggles to

Fallibilism and the Justified Deduction Principle
Information is one of the concepts that may be measured, evaluated, stored, and shared, but does this have the same connotation as knowledge. Even
though these two notions are used interchangeably in most cases, it is difficult to see the difference without having sufficient ground for this. How can
one state that justified true belief is knowledge? This problem was deeply examined by a German philosopher Edmund Gettier who explained the
difference and provided significant evidence for questioning everything, as Descartes did. Explanations by Gettier are intricate and more related to the
true or false correlation between something that a person believes to be the true and something that prevents him or her to think so.
Edmund Gettier took the topic of justification and knowledge to the next level with his philosophical Gettier's Problem. The Gettier Problem's
counterexamples is dependent on two principles, Fallibilism and the Justified Deduction Principle. The principle of Fallibilism is based off the belief
that a person has the potential to be justified in believing a false statement while the Justified Deduction Principle entails that if a person has evidence
to back up a certain claim, that person is justified to trust that claim. As these two principles highlight the Gettier Problem, it becomes clear that
Edmund Gettier opposes the 'Justified–True–Belief as knowledge' concept.
The only thing remains clear is when one person has some justified evidence for believing in

Herbert Spencer Essay
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Herbert Spencer
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|Biography: Herbert Spencer |
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was an English philosopher, scientist, engineer, and political economist. In his day his works were important in
popularizing the concept of evolution and played an important part in the development of economics, political science, biology, and philosophy.
Herbert Spencer was born in Derby on April 27, 1820. His childhood, described in An Autobiography (1904), reflected the... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
His views concerning a science of sociology are elaborated in two major works, Descriptive Sociology (published in 17 volumes, 1873–1934) and The
Study of Sociology (1873).
Spencer was particularly influential in the United States until the turn of the century. According to William Graham Sumner, who used The Study of
Sociology as a text in the first sociology course offered in an American university, it was Spencer's work which established sociology as a separate,
legitimate field in its own right. Spencer's demand that historians present the "natural history of society," in order to furnish data for a comparative
sociology, is also credited with inspiring James Harvey Robinson and the others involved in the writing of the New History in the United States.
Economic Theories
Social philosophy in the latter part of the 19th century in the United States was dominated by Spencer. His ideas of laissez–faire and the survival of the
fittest by natural selection fitted very well into an age of rapid expansion and ruthless business competition. Spencer provided businessmen with the
reassuring notion that what they were doing was not just ruthless self–interest but was a natural law operating in nature and human society. Not only
was competition in harmony with nature, but it was also in the interest of the general welfare and progress. Social Darwinism, or

G E Moore Proof Of The External World
In the Proof of the External World, G.E Moore is trying to prove the existenece of the external world, showing that it is nearly actually very easy to
show that we are living in an actual world where things are more than just illusion or we are living in a world where the prove of external world is
actually possible. Moore's proof of an external world runs as followed: Premise 1: This is a hand Premise 2: If this is a hand, then hands exists
Conclusion: Therefore, hands exist. By saying "hands exist", Moore is actually suggesting that the hands, as something that is outside of own minds,
exists. They exists not because that we simply believe so, but because that we think that there are more things out side our minds, which means even
that we have no knowledge of them, they could actually exist. Also, Moore is saying that everything outside of our own minds could be proved as
exist in this way, so it could be put in this way as follows: Premise 1: This is A Premise 2: If this is A, then A exists Conclusion: A exists. Also, Moore
suggests that a deductive argument such as this one is sound if and only if that, 1. The premises are different than the conclusion. 2. The conclusion
must logically follow the premises. 3. One must know each of the premises. As a fallibilism argument, it is not necessary for any individuals to know
all the facts and truths in the world, instead, he could actually infer things from one to another by constructing solid arguments. Even the things

The Five Core Existentialist Themes
1.What are the five core existentialist themes and how are they exemplified in the philosophy of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus?
The five core existentialists themes include: individualism and subjectivity; freedom and responsibility; existence and essence; anguish and absurdity;
authenticity. Existentialism gets rid of the one–size–fits–all notion that philosophy revolved around in the prior years. Its individualism and
subjectivity allows for each individual person to choose what is best for them when it comes to how to live. Existentialism gives people immense
freedom. We are allowed to choose as we please. But, with choices comes responsibility; thus, we cannot blame others for our choices that come as
a result of our unbounded freedom. Before existentialism, there was a preconceived notion that our existence dictates our essence. We are born into
the roles that God assigns to us. Existentialists view it to be the other way around. It was a common them for existentialist philosophers to believe
that we are born with a clean slate and we must fill that slate in. We exist before we make our essence. This sense of freedom although it may be
liberating, it can also lead to feelings of anguish. Knowing that you are in charge of giving your life direction and meaning can make you feel a sense
of absurdity. Thus, we are responsible to give it meaning. Another existentialist theme is to be authentic. You must choose your own path, if not then
you are deemed

Summary Of Rae Langton And John Stuart Mill
Rae Langton and John Stuart Mill were both philosophers who attempted to address the similar topic of freedom of speech. In On Liberty, Mill
proposed that speech and actions are separate things and that even negative speech should be included. He claims that it has extrinsic value and the
suppression of a minority is immoral. Langton opposes that in Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts, and argues that cases like pornography demonstrate
that some kinds of speech can silence other speech. She defends two feminist claims: Pornography subordinate women and silences women. With
freedom of speech connecting both of these two philosophers, pornography is a prominent example used in their claims.
In this paper, I will begin my argument with Mill's two argument for freedom of thought and speech which stresses that speech should not constricted. I
will demonstrate his reasoning for supporting this view through four premises. Then, I will explain how his harm principle and his stance connects with
pornography. Afterwards, I will explain three categories of acts and her speech acts relationship with subordination in order to understand Langton's
argument whether the illocutionary act that pornographic expression constitutes subordination. This will allow me to explain Katherine MacKinnon's
two feminist claims about pornography and Langton's defense on how pornography silences and how the argument fits into the free speech debate.
With these two different arguments, I will then present

Sample Resume : Midterm Take Home Exam
Philosophy of Biology Biology/Philosophy 4306 Spring Semester 2015 Midterm Take Home Exam Due March 20th at 6:00pm 20% of Final
Grade Minimum Word Count: 1500 Maximum Word Count: 3000 Instructions: Provide answers for six of the questions below. It is your choice
which six you answer. Upload your completed exam at or before the deadline on our course's Blackboard page under the "Exams" tab. Proper
citations are required for all references. I will look at drafts of your exam up to a week before it is due. You may discuss the strategy that you are
taking to complete the exam questions with fellow classmates, but you may not give them access to your actual written work. Honesty on your part is
presumed. Many questions will require you... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Provide an example of each in your explanation. Are the Spandrels of San Marcos a true exaptation? Adaptation refers to selected features that increase
fitness. An example of this is light coat color in the dune populations of oldfield mice – Hopi Hoekstra and her colleagues constructed silicone models
of oldfield mice that they painted to mimic either the dark or light coated mice. They placed 125 models of each type in the natural environment of
light, sandy beaches or darker inland habitats. Attacks by predators could easily be detected based on teeth marks, talon scratches, etc. The team found
strong evidence for a fitness advantage to mice that matched the color of their environment (Bergstrom and Dugatkin 2012). Exaptations are
adaptations that are used for a different role than they originally were selected for, but they still increase fitness (by accident). An example of this is
feathers in modern–day birds. Feathers play a prominent role in bird flight, so one would assume that they were always selected for that function. As it
has it, there is phylogenetic evidence of recent paleontological discoveries in China that reveal that featherlike structures were widespread in a
substantial subgroup of the bipedal theropod dinosaurs, which did not use these structures for flying. These dinosaurs gave rise to modern birds
(Bergstrom and Dugatkin 2012). Aptations are a

Hawk Eye Is Not As Infallible As People Think
Section 1: Introduction
Hawk–eye is a simulation which is provided by numerous cameras. By tracking the flight of the ball and projecting its path, Hawk–eye is able to
triangulate the ball's potential location. Sport has been notable throughout the years of attempting to eliminate human error using technology, in order to
deliver fair sport to the public. The brand has continued to grow extremely quickly, and is synonymous with modern day sport. Initially used in Cricket
at the turn of the century, it has spread to numerous sports, most recently football. Whilst both are at differing ends of the spectrum, in terms of
experience in the game, they draw huge contention within the media and amongst players. Fallibility is a matter discussed widely in sport, and not just
in Tennis. This report will thoroughly examine the article 1by Suzi Gage and discuss the claim presented that Hawk–eye is not as infallible as people
think. Therefore, the accuracy of Hawk–eye, its weaknesses and any potential advances that would help progress the technology used in sport will be
discussed. Gage bases most of her article findings on the journal by Harry Collins and Robert Evans2 and the Hawk–eye website3, both of which will
be thoroughly scrutinised in order to best determine the validity of the claim.
Section 2: Stats (Investigating the insufficient stats behind the workings of hawkeye)(
Perhaps the most pertinent statistic mentioned by Gage in her article1 is the claim that Hawk–eye is accurate

Critical Review On Critical Investigation And Education Essay
Thanks, Brittany Reading Guide ED4391 Fall 2016 Critical reading activity Reason in the balance, (pages 4–15). I would like to hand this one in for
marks. Thanks, Brittany Pre–reading activity: Before you read these pages, consider the following questions and jot down a few thoughts on each:
1.What do you think critical inquiry is? What is your working definition of critical inquiry? What might be the relationship between critical inquiry
and education? I think critical inquiry is looking deeper into a specific issue, so that you can form an opinion based on facts and evidence portraying
to the issue. Critical inquiry is the process of gathering information, evidence, and ideas to form a thoughtful, well– constructed understanding of a
specific issue. Critical inquiry has a direct link to education. This type of approach can be specifically seen in classrooms and schools that use an
inquiry–based approach. Although I believe, all teachers should give students the opportunity to use critical inquiry within the classroom. This
approach can be used when working through problems and research. Instead of giving students the "right answer" you can allow them to explore the
issue or topic on their own. I think critical inquiry is a beneficial skill that students can obtain in the classroom, one which allows them to make
reasoned judgments though–out their life. 2.Do you think such a relationship is a happy or an unhappy one? Is it a love/hate kind of

Fallibilism and Epistemology Essay
Fallibilism and Epistemology
The quest for certainty has gotten epistemology into a lot of hot water, and I propose we give it up as a mistake. We should freely admit we can't be
certain of anything, and move on. It is, of course, a reasonable question whether we can consistently get along without certainty, and even if it is
possible, whether there is some terrible price to be paid if we do. I will argue that it is indeed possible to do without any epistemologically useful notion
of certainty. I will also argue that, while there may be prices to be paid, they are by no means as high as the prices to paid by those who wish to keep
certainty as a viable epistemological concept.
But first, let me make good my claim that a lot of trouble ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Even his senses sometimes deceive him, when he experiences an illusion or hallucination. Because of this, he came to realize he is not at all sure
what he knows and what he doesn't, so he tried to sort out the true knowledge from everything else. The only way to do this, he thought, is to try to
doubt everything, to see if there is anything that cannot be doubted. In other words, he applied a very strong test of certainty; all knowledge is
certain, so if there is any real knowledge, it will have to be something that is absolutely immune to doubt. To check his beliefs to see if they were
certain, he devised his famous two tests: the Dream test and the Evil Genius test.
Everyone who has passed Beginning Philosophy knows how it goes from here. The only things that are absolutely immune to doubt are that I exist and
that the current contents of my consciousness are whatever they are. A strong requirement for certainty––namely indubitability––seems to leave us
trapped in our own heads, unable to acquire knowledge of an external world at all. Indeed the straits are so desperate that Descartes has to enlist God's
help in getting out, by way of one of the most dubious arguments for the existence of God ever offered in the history of philosophy.
But even empiricists are not immune to the charms of certainty. Like Descartes, Hume is interested in discovering the extent of human knowledge.
Unlike Descartes, Hume doesn't

Alan Chalmers Use Of The Scientific Method

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