tok vocab senior

Pluralistic history

accepting that there are various different perspectives that may be justified, and multiple possible accounts of the past

Primary source

-any object or written source from the time or based on the time being studied-ex. the eyewitness account of soldier fighting in WWII even when it was written 50 years later

Secondary source

-a secondhand account of a historical event-ex. a history textbook

Censorship

the suppression or limitation of any material or views and beliefs that are considered to be unsuitable or inappropriate

Hindsight bias

mistakenly thinking, after something has happened, that you had known it would happen

Historiography

the study of historical perspectives

Aesthetics

-the branch of philosophy that studies beauty and the arts-principles concerned with beauty and artistic taste-the study and appreciation of beauty

Narrative

-a story that tells about a series of events-it can be factual, fictitious, or a blend of both

Kitsch

derivative, cliched art

Creativity

-the ability to bring something into being through the imagination-the ability to generate ideas or produce objects that are original, surprising, and valuable

Disinterested

free from bias and self-interest, which may help us to make objective judgments

Canon

-a collection of works considered by scholars to be the most important and influential-in the context of religion, a body of authorized religious works accepted as authoritative within that religion

Theorem

a principle or statement that can be demonstrated or proved using logic, but is not self-evident

Axiom

a starting assumption, often regarded as a self-evident truth or, more loosely, something we assume to be true or accept as true within a particular system

Proof

-generally, refers to conclusive evidence, leaving little place for doubt-however, a mathematical proof is more than just a general proof - it is a conclusive deduction from axioms that leaves no room for doubt or argument

Inference

a conclusion based on evidence and reasoning

Formal system

in mathematics, a system used to deduce theorems from axioms according to a set of logical rules

Postulate

-a statement underlying a theory-something assumed to be true-they are slightly different to axioms but the two words are frequently used interchangeably

Logicism

the theory that mathematics can be derived from logic, without the need of any specifically mathematical concepts

Intuitionism

the theory that mathematical objects are mental constructions, and that as we create mathematical objects, so we create the reality of them

Population

in the context of mathematics, the entire group of objects, measurements or events from which a sample is drawn

Correlation

-relationship-all sets of data exhibit correlation-some are positive-some are negative-some are neutral or negligible-correlation in itself never justifies an inference of causal connection, although it may suggest it

Countability

in mathematics, a set is countable if it can be put into a one-to-one relationship with the natural numbers {1,2,3...}

Amoral

-outside the scope of morality-lacking any moral framework

Pseudoscience

a system of beliefs and practices that are claimed to be scientific but which are incompatible with the scientific method

Empirical

based on and verified by observation and experience

Scientific method

a method of procedure for the way scientific investigations are conducted

Hypothesis

a proposed explanation or starting point, based on limited evidence that can be tested

Inductivism

the use and preference for inductive methods of reasoning to develop natural laws

Controlled experiment

experiments that are performed with carefully regulated variables to provide a standard of comparison for similar experiments with just one differing variable

Law

-a generalized description of observations about a relationship between two or more things in the natural world-often the description is mathematical

Theory

an interconnected system of ideas intended to explain something in depth

Generalization

making statements that apply to all cases, on the basis of some specific cases

Peer review

the evaluation of academic or scientific work by experts working in the same field

Precession

a slow and continuous change in the orientation of the axis of a rotating body pre-colonial (to be added at first proof of Decoding?)

Ethology

the study of animal behavior

Observer effect

-in the natural sciences, it is the principle that the act of observing a phenomenon changes the phenomenon being observed-in the human sciences, it refers to the tendency of people to behave differently when they are being observed

Scientism

an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of the natural sciences applied to any and all areas of investigation

Positivism

the belief that the only authentic knowledge is that which can be scientifically verified or proven through logic or mathematics

Logical positivism

the belief that knowledge comes from logical inferences based observable facts, and that a statement can only be meaningful if it can be determined to be true or false

Logical empiricism

-the belief that all human knowledge should be reduced to logical and scientific foundations-regarded as synonymous with logical positivism

Objectivity

a detached way of looking at the world, largely independent of personal feelings or opinions, that expects to be corroborated by a knowledge community

Verification

the process of establishing the validity or accuracy of something

Scientific paradigm

a worldview that underlies the theories and methodology in a particular field of science

Conjecture

a guess or imaginative hypothesis

Refute

to prove a statement or theory wrong

Falsify

to prove something to be false

Corroborate

to confirm or support a statement or theory

Rigour

-strictness-the quality of being extremely thorough and careful

Inherent

existing in something as a permanent characteristic

Collaborate

produced by two or more people working together

Authenticity

validity, genuineness

Layperson

-a person not from the profession-in a religious context, a person without professional or specialized knowledge in their religion

Informed consent

the process where a participant learns about the risks and benefits of a medical procedure or study to decide whether to participate in it

Sociology

the study of the structure and function of society

Anthropology

the study of the development and culture of society

Psychology

the scientific study of the human mind and behavior

Political science

the scientific study of the state, governments, power, and political activity

Sense perception

the active, selective, and interpretative process of recording of becoming conscious of the external world

Go native

to adopt the attitudes and behavior of a foreign group with whom one has lived for an extended period

Neutral

unbiased, impartial, not supporting either side of an argument

Response bias

the tendency to try and please a person interviewing us or a person carrying out a questionnaire, by choosing the answer we feel will please them

Quantitative

relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something, rather than its quality

Qualitative

-relating to, measuring, or measured by the quality of something, rather than its quantity-qualitative studies use a method to give a detailed narrative about a human phenomenon that describes a culture or shares a story

Meta-analysis

analysis of data to establish trends based on various different studies

Law of Large Numbers

a statistical principle saying that random variations tend to cancel out when a population is large enough

post hoc ergo propter hoc

the fallacy of confusing correlation with a causal connection

Cognitive bias

when bias affects the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding

Reductionism

the belief that some subjects can be explained in terms of other more fundamental ones

Reductive fallacy

the fallacy of saying that just because A is composed of B, it follows that A is nothing but B

Holism

the belief that the best way to understand something is by looking at them as a whole rather than by analyzing them into separate parts

Verstehen position

the belief that the main aim of the human sciences is to understand the meaning of various social practices as they are understood by the agents themselves