The+Natural+Sciences


 * __The Natural Sciences__**

Day 1–The social and epistemological significance of science
- Scientists are generally trusted in our society. - Edwin Hubble telescope helped us see stars in the universe which furthered people's knowledge about our Earth. - The fact that the Earth is round, which was discovered by shadows, leads to ultimate truth. - Science vs. Catholic Church > issue of evolution

Day 2–Video: the history of scientific discoveries
- Science beings around 1600, breaking off from natural philosophy. Scientists include Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Descartes, Kempler and more. - Science did not get its name until 1600. - If something cannot be proved scientifically then it is not a known fact. - Science is the only thing that progresses, it is cumulative.

Day 3–The origins of science. Major claims made on its behalf. - Science is supported by factual evidence. - Science is believed to be something that explains the unexplainable, however, this could also be religion. - Three types of science> chemistry, biology, physics - Science is a way of thinking but also a body of knowledge.

Day 4–Two meanings of science; elements of scientific method
- Science is a way of thinking, and a body of knowledge, as mentioned earlier. - Scientific method includes various steps which can be placed in a different order depending on the experiment. - Elements related to the scientific method are experiment, induction, hypothesis, law, measurement, observation, repeatability, and theory.

Day 5–Elements of scientific method and problems with them
- Relevance- Often scientists forget things that are relevant, and they could miss something very important. - Expectations- It is important not to go into experiments having preconceived thoughts about results- this can influence what you see. - Confirmation Bias- This refers to the fact that people only look for evidence that confirms a belief, and they disregard other data that doesn't support it. (Darwin goes against this)

Day 6–Popperian falsification
- Popper believes that when a theory tries to explain everything it really explains nothing. - Popper also believes that a real scientific theory is not one that tries to explain everything- Einstein's general theory of relativity, for example. - In addition, Popper thinks that there is no way to formulate a hypothesis with only observational data.

Day 7–Popperian falsification, evaluation
- Confirmation is provisional, falsification is decisive; confirmation comes in many forms when things can only be proved false once or one way. - When there is a conflict between observations and hypotheses, you can reject one and accept the other. - Many scientists refuse to abandon their theories in all areas of science esp. physics, chemistry and biology; Newton, Mendeleyev, Darwin.

Day 8–Kuhn and scientific revolutions; evaluation
- Kuhn introduced the idea of paradigm to the world of science. - Scientific Revolution: when scientists become dissatisfied with a previous paradigm, they create a completely new idea. - Kuhn's theory is made up of 3 main ideas. 1) scientists do not question the issue at hand and only try to focus on solving problems pertaining to that issue/paradigm; 2) Science doesn't progress slowly, it goes through a series of drastic jumps; 3) during scientific crises, there isn't a completely rational way of choosing between 2 paradigms.

Day 9–Since Kuhn - Inductivism: this is the most practical/easiest way, but is not fully conclusive - Popper's Falsification: this is more conclusive and offers a better, more full understanding of the scientific issue/thought at hand, but only accepts the current theory for a time until a new one is formed - Kuhn's Scientific Revolutions: deals with a hypothesis which applies a paradigm, shows some uncertainties with it, finds something wrong with it, creates a new paradigm and the new paradigm becomes the normal/real one

Day 10–Kuhn and scientific revolutions; evaluation - Element 1 (Kuhn's Theory): Most of the time scientists do not question the paradigm in which they are operating and simply focus on solving the task or problem at hand. - Element 2: Science goes through ups and downs, instead of simply progressing smoothly, shown by history. - Element 3: During periods of scientific crisis, there is no rational way of dealing with different paradigms.

Day 11–Science and language: truth, right, wrong; verisimilitude, provisionality
- Versimilitude is having the appearance of truth or being true. - Provisionality is something existing only until it is replaced. - In science, provisionality often appears since previous theories are replaced when they are overridden by better or truer ones, at least for the time being.

Day 12–Symposium and essay preparation
- No TOK material this day.

===Day 11–Symposium I: "In the natural sciences, do we learn more from work that follows or that breaks with accepted conventions?"=== - 17th century biological breakthrough- invention of the microscope which led to later discovery of antibiotics. - 18th century biological breakthrough- Linnaeus's system for classifying plants and animals, which is still used today. - Hypothesis vs. Theory vs. Law: counterclaim would be that there are NO scientific laws in biology because somewhere in the world there is some type of organism breaking a specific rule.

===Day 12–Symposium II: "For some people science Is the supreme form of all knowledge. Is this view reasonable or does it involve a misunderstanding of science or of knowledge?" Essay due for those not doing a symposium.=== - Science is a supreme form of knowledge for some people simply because they do not accept any other explanation for things. - Atheists are people who accept only science because they do not believe in any religion, only accept scientific explanations for the creation of the world. - This view is acceptable because it is not known and will never be fully known how the world started, so anything people want to believe they are allowed at this point in time.

Day 13–Debrief symposiums
- missed class because of 1st grade buddies