Week 8 - Induction and Scientific Thinking, Evidence and Clinical Reasoning

What can deductive reasoning allow us to do?

It allows us to reason beyond our experience.

What does deductive reasoning provide a unique certainty of?

Provides a unique certainty of confidence in our conclusions.

What is our willingness to act often based on?

On our confidence in our conclusions.

What is another way to say quality of assumptions?

Are the assumptions true?

Where can limitations in deductive reasoning come from?

Limitations can come from anywhere.

What do false assumptions lead to?

Uncertain conclusions.

What term describes Quality of Logic?

Is it sound.

True or False:

Deduction is not self-testing.

True

What must conclusions be tested against?

Reality.

What is relevance related to in Inductive Reasoning?

Related to specific observations.

What must conclusions in Inductive Reasoning alway be related to?

It must be related to reality (data driven) and self-correcting.

What does Inductive Reasoning observations test?

These observations test prior conclusions.

What are the two types of Inductive Reasoning?

Informal and Formal

What does Informal Inductive Reasoning consist of?

1. Learning from personal observation.

2. Recognizing patterns of similarity.

3. Not formal/controlled, not rigorous.

What does Formal Inductive Reasoning consist of?

1. Create controlled experience (experiment).

2. Collect specific observations (data).

3. Apply inductive logic (statistical analysis).

4. Conclusion based on data and inductive logic.

Inductive reasoning can lead to incompleteness of:

Data.

What problem is associated with the limitations of Inductive Reasoning?

The "Black Swan problem".

What is Inductive Materialism also known as?

Positivism.

What term best describes the following statement?

"If you can't measure it, you can't reason scientifically about it."

Inductive Materialism (Positivism).

What is Inductive Reasoning not as well formalized as Deductive Logic?

Because of the uncertainty of conclusions.

What type of reasoning does science primarily use?

Inductive reasoning.

What does "induction" mean in scientific methodology?

"To pull into"—it involves deriving conclusions from specific experiences through comparative logic.

Inductive reasoning involves deriving conclusions from specific experiences through:

Comparative logic.

How does inductive reasoning work in science?

It uses accurate, measurable observations to reason from specific cases to a more general principle.

What is the definition of science as a discipline?

The study of the patterns, processes and mechanisms of reality, leading to an understanding of how it works.

What does science produce?

It produces new knowledge.

What is the definition of Philosophy?

"Love of Wisdom".

What is the definition of science?

"To know".

What reasoning is Philosophy based on?

Based on Deductive reasoning.

What reasoning is Science based on?

Based on Inductive reasoning.

The questions Philosophy raises can be explored by:

The Scientific Method.

What can Philosophic thought produce?

Value judgements about scientific (empirical) knowledge.

What is a hypothesis in scientific research?

A hypothesis guides observation and sets the epistemic goal of the experiment.

What does a hypothesis lead to?

It leads to scientific discovery.

How does the research question influence scientific experiments?

It helps determine the experiment and the type of data collected.

What are the key characteristics of a hypothesis?

It must be measurable, disprovable (refutable), and supportable.

How many variables should a hypothesis involve?

One or at most two variables.

What is an experiment in scientific research?

A controlled, formalized experience designed to test a hypothesis.

What are the key requirements of a well-conducted experiment?

It must be well-described and replicable.

What two groups must an experiment include?

A control group and a variable (experimental) group.

What is Inductive Logic?

Statistical analysis of comparison between control/variable data.

What does Inductive Logic lead to?

Leads to between variation of condition conclusions about the probability of causal connection and differences in outcomes

True or False:

Conclusions are not certain.

True.

What relation does a conclusion have to a hypothesis?

Conclusions tends to support or negate the hypothesis.

What are conclusions stated in terms of?

In terms of probabilities.

What should conclusion be based on?

Should be based solidly and only on data collected.

Why is perception essential for scientific and everyday knowledge?

Without perception, we would have no scientific knowledge or even everyday observational knowledge.

How is scientific knowledge ultimately based on perception?

Even if knowledge is acquired through instruction or testimony, the original discoveries must be made partly through perceptual experience.

How do we move from perception to scientific truth?

By making observations, generalizing inductively, and transmitting knowledge from premises to conclusions.

What are scientists typically interested in studying?

The nature and behavior of kinds of things, such as accelerating objects.

What is typically considered scientific knowledge?

Generalizations about the behavior and nature of things.

How is scientific knowledge grounded?

Scientific knowledge is inductively, not deductively, grounded.

What is the relationship between premises and generalizations in inductive reasoning?

Generalization is not entailed by them.

What is an example of proving a proposition through direct establishment?

Proving someone is in town by introducing them.

What is required to prove a proposition?

A premise that entails it or an event that directly establishes it.

What is it best to avoid calling a reasoning that supports a scientific generalization?

A "scientific proof".

How does scientific reasoning compare to deductive reasoning in terms of validity?

Scientific reasoning is not deductively valid, unlike the reasoning used in geometrical proofs.

Does scientific knowledge automatically arise from observing our surroundings?

No.

How does scientific knowledge emerge?

It emerges after using imagination to formulate questions and frame hypotheses.

What role does deduction play in testing a hypothesis?

Deduction helps determine how to test a hypothesis, such as predicting outcomes based on established theories.

How can general laws lead to less general laws in scientific practice?

From general laws (like Newton’s laws), one can deduce more specific laws (e.g., laws of planetary motion or Galileo’s law of acceleration).

How does deduction help unify scientific knowledge?

Deductions from general laws to less general principles help bring together different areas of scientific knowledge.

What attitude do scientists typically have toward scientific knowledge?

Scientists typically have a fallibilistic attitude. meaning they believe scientific knowledge may need refinement and could be mistaken.

What is fabillibilism?

The view that these beliefs may be mistaken.

What does objectivism in science mean?

Objectivism is the position that there is an objective method for determining whether beliefs about the world are true, one that yields consistent results when applied by competent investigators.

What is Approximate Knowledge?

A well grounded belief which holds true up to a certain level of precision in measurement—apart from “minor inaccuracies."

How should we describe scientific knowledge instead of saying it's not really true?

Scientific knowledge should be described as approximate knowledge of a generalization or knowledge of an approximation of truth.

What is Unqualified Knowledge?

Knowledge that is approximately true or knowledge that is a generalization.

True or False:

There is scientific knowledge in journals no one entirely remembers.

True.

Scientific knowledge in journals no one entirely remembers is termed as:

It is termed virtual knowledge.

The bearing of the social character of science on the justification and knowledge it generates is a major focus of:

Social epistemology

What is roughly the theory of knowledge and justification as applied to groups of people?

Social epistemology.

Can knowledge exist without an individual knowing it?

No.

What is virtual knowledge?

Virtual knowledge is knowledge that exists in a shared resource (like a library), but no individual knows it in its entirety.

What is an example of virtual knowledge involving two individuals?

Two individuals that know two things that obviously imply a third.

What is the work of scientists, traditionally understood (and traditionally is how it is understood by physicians), logically simpler than?

The practical work of clinic.

What makes medical practice uncertain, even for experienced physicians?

Medical practice is uncertain because even the best scientific and clinical studies are inexact when applied to individual patients, requiring physicians to confront the problem of particularization with every encounter.

What is the "ineradicable uncertainty of medicine"?

The ineradicable uncertainty of medicine refers to the challenge physicians face in applying general scientific knowledge to individual patients, where uncertainty will always exist.

What are the two necessary aspects of clinical reasoning in medicine?

Generalization and Particularization

Generalization and Particularization are opposite moves that can be described as:

Lumping and Splitting.

What is particularization the reverse of?

It is the opposite (reverse) of generalization.

What is particularization the essential act of?

Clinical reasoning.

Particularization begins with what interpretive question that is the focus of every clinical encounter>

What is going on with this patient?

Faced with a multitude of generalizing studies of varying quality and uncertain relevance, what must a physician figure out?

A physician must figure out how any or all of them apply to a particular patient.