The Development of Modern Science

Inquiry question: How have philosophical arguments influenced the development of modern scientific research?

Students:

• explore epistemology and alternative ways of knowing, for example the development of navigation
• describe the influence of empiricism on scientific inquiry
• compare induction and deduction with reference to scientific inquiry
• assess parsimony/Occam’s razor and its influence on the development of science
• analyse the importance of falsifiability in scientific research
• evaluate the significance of confirmation bias, including theory-dependence of observation
• use historical examples to evaluate the contribution of cultural observational knowledge and its relationship to science, including:

– post – 49000 BCE, exemplified by Aboriginal cultures

– pre – 1500 CE, exemplified by Greek and Egyptian cultures and those of the Asia region

• select one example from the following list to analyse the paradigm shift and how evidence is used to support new theories to explain phenomena and their consequences:

– Lavoisier and oxygen

– Einstein and general relativity

– Wegener and continental drift, leading to plate tectonics

– McClintock and transposable elements, commonly known as ‘jumping genes’

An Introduction to philosophy

Introduction from the University of Berkeley: https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/philosophy

Videos introducing philosophy and epistemology

The crash course videos below provide an entertaining introduction to philosophy that covers:

• Inductive and deductive reasoning
• Epistemology
• Empiricism

Navigation

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Longitude1.html?fbclid=IwAR2xfQfDbXOEANJHRyMymO61vKii9RWM8AfHr6mzhfDQY2dZYycHhIW9DEk

Empiricism

Induction and Deduction

Occam's razor/parsimony

Confirmation bias

A referenced overview: http://nautil.us/issue/24/error/the-trouble-with-scientists

Another discussion by Physicist Chris Lee: https://arstechnica.com/science/2010/07/confirmation-bias-how-to-avoid-it/

Some well-known examples of confirmation bias:

• Cold fusion https://undsci.berkeley.edu/lessons/pdfs/cold_fusion.pdf
• The "Clever Hans" effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans
• The "Memory of Water": https://www.nature.com/news/2004/041004/full/news041004-19.html
• The case of Brandon Mayfield who was erronously identified as one of the Madrid train Bombers in 2004 (Paper by Itiel E. Dror et al. :http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.557.1418&rep=rep1&type=pdf on confirmation bias in finderprinting) More discussion of this case from an academic: http://www.cse.nd.edu/BTAS_10/Valentine%20BTAS%202010%20for%20web.pdf
• N-rays: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_ray
• Polywater: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywater
• Note: Regression towards the mean (better in data analysis topic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean

Theory dependence of observation:

Standard dictionary of philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/science-theory-observation/

Alam Chambers, UoW: https://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/STS300/science/shaping/articles/artjudgement2.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer-expectancy_effect

Cultural observational knowledge and its relationship to science

Aboriginal knowledge

https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org/2016/04/08/aboriginal-songlines-helped-draw-the-map-in-australia/

https://blog.csiro.au/aboriginal-people-how-to-misunderstand-their-science/

http://emudreaming.com/index.html

http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/index.shtml

https://www.narragunnawali.org.au/uploads/media/professional-learning/science-resource-guide-fffe8b3f4f.pdf

https://sydney.edu.au/science/news-and-events/2019/01/25/the-sovereignty-and-science-of-the-skies.html

Chinese astronomy

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Chinese_astronomy

Use of Armillary sphere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillary_sphere

Greek astronomy

http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci/lectures/greekast.htm

Egyptian science

https://www.ancient.eu/article/967/ancient-egyptian-science--technology/

https://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/students/research-guide/ancient-egyptian-science

https://www.lindau-nobel.org/science-in-ancient-egypt-today-connecting-eras/

https://www.museedelhistoire.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcs01e.shtml

Science across ancient cultures:

http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/276/1257

https://www.amazon.com/Astronomy-Across-Cultures-History-Non-Western/dp/0792363639/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=

Social construction of scientific knowledge (Latour): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Ds9gN5wBU

Latour lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTvbK10ABPI

Paradigm Shifts