Topic II. A Common Shared Reality and Scientific Advancement
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LEARNING GOALS
- B. CONCEPT ACQUISITION
- Assumption of Reality
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LEARNING GOALS
- B. CONCEPT ACQUISITION
- In some classification cases like pornography identification or graduate school admissions, there may not be a “truth of the matter” so there aren’t true “false” positives or “true” negatives, although a threshold must still be set.
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EXAMPLES
- Exemplary Quotes
- “They seem to think that anybody’s opinion is as good as anybody else’s on this matter where there is only one reality out there. It may be hard to figure out, but it’s still there anyway.”
- “Either the earth is going to warm by >4 degrees over the next 50 years because of human-added greenhouse gasses or not—whether or not the proponents on each side of the debate are biased! ‘Nature always bats last.’”
LEARNING GOALS
- B. CONCEPT ACQUISITION
- Assumption of Reality
- Scientists assume an external reality, which is shared by and affects all people and has enough regularity to lend itself to induction. This external reality is what scientists seek to describe accurately.
- C. CONCEPT APPLICATION
- Defend critiques of science based on its provisionality by appeal to its self-correcting properties
- Distinguish concept validity from (1) a social-constructivist picture of scientific concepts free-floating in a world of mutual agreement among power brokers, not moored to a universally shared reality, and (2) subjective preferences.
- a. Identify cases where concept validity is expected
- e.g. What is a quark/electron/boson? What is an animal?
- b. Identify cases where social constructivism might be a good approach
- e.g. What is her name? What is the name of this city?
- c. Identify cases where preference might be sufficient
- Which chocolate is tastiest? Which color palette is prettiest?
- Use the concept of validity to assess scientific claims, contrasting cases where the validity of the concept is on stronger vs. weaker footing.
- a. In straightforward cases
- e.g. Everyone or nearly everyone can agree about which animals are cats, and consequently agree that most cats have fur, etc.
- b. In less straightforward cases
- e.g. Claims about bosons, dark energy, what sort of black hole is at the center of the Milky Way
- c. In difficult cases
- e.g. Disagreement is rife over what intelligence is, so claims about the relative intelligence of two groups of people are more questionable.
CLASS ELEMENTS
- Discussion Questions
- Suppose there is scientific consensus on an issue, but you have an intuition that runs against that scientific consensus. Imagine you are obliged to advocate one side or the other (at least provisionally).
- A. Under what conditions, if any, should you go with the scientific consensus?
- B. Under what conditions, if any, should you go against the scientific consensus?
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CLASS ELEMENTS
- Suggested Readings & Reading Questions
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- Reading Questions: Do you think you "see" through an ordinary microscope? What about an electron microscope? Does using the word "see" imply that what you see is what is really there?
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