What is a scientic theory?

Dr. Ruth Conroy Dalton

A brief philosophical introduction

The denition of research questions depends above all on research method, and about this there is a long standing history of philosophical debate

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Francis Bacon
Bacon suggested that knowledge could be gained from the senses, but only by using them through carefully constructed experiments (since the senses err) Essentially, Bacon holds that data come rst
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Rene Descartes
Only the most basic thoughts can be assumed to be true & a process of logical argument can construct knowledge from these alone Knowledge can be conducted in isolation from either previous thinkers or sense data

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Commonsense and the problem of induction

Since the sun rose yesterday, and today it will rise again tomorrow It seems that by obser ving regularities in the world we can induce general principles or laws

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David Hume
What is the justication for the belief that the future will be largely like the past? Hume stated that there could be no basis in logic for the assumption that past regularities will repeat

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Karl Popper
Could empirical reasons ever be used to justify the assumption of truth or falsity of any statement? His answer was that although they could never justify its truth they could prove its falsity
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Popperian science
Obser vation

Theory

Experiment
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Kuhn and paradigm shifts

Dominant sets of ways we think about things (paradigms) Revolutionary shifts of paradigm Causing the shifts are anomalous data and new (younger) groups of scientists
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Holmdel satellite antenna, Bell Labs N.J.

Penzias and Wilson

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Hacking and the creation of phenomena

Creation of phenomena which then becomes the subject of theory For Hacking the experimentalist plays a key role, as important as the predictions of the theorist
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Creating phenomena

Obser vation

Representing

Transforming & Calculating

Theory
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The social and the articial

Experimenting Spotting regularities Discovering mechanisms that have explanatory power over the regularities Generating classications and names

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Experiments
No xed method Follow hunches Make it clear what the variables are and what is being kept constant Explore all the dimensions of a problem as far as possible Develop methods for representing visually and measuring
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Regularities
Those that act at the level of the individual Those that act at the level of the group Those that act at the level of a whole class of systems

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Mechanisms

Mechanisms provide explanations for regularities

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Classication and naming

Classication is a procedure in which individual items are placed into groups based on quantitative information on one or more characteristics inherent in the items (referred to as traits, variables, characters, etc) One aspect of classication is the process of deciding what to obser ve (if t wo categories that behave differently are obser ved as a single class the result may hold no pattern)

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The three principles of research

The shortest model (or simplest theory) that accounts fully for the phenomena on hand is preferable. This is called 'Occam's razor' or the principle of parsimony

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The three principles of research

The shortest model (or simplest theory) that accounts fully for the phenomena on hand is preferable. This is called 'Occam's razor' or the principle of parsimony Wherever you come across an anomaly, place it at the centre of the theoretical investigation If there is more than one way of looking at things do both

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Paradoxes and paradigms

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Questions and topics

Often research is a matter of following hunches and intuitions about interesting things to study and ways to study them... What is the question to which this topic is relevant? What is the question to which these methods are relevant?
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