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epistemology
branch of philosophy that studies the ways of ‘knowing’, studies the nature of the scope of knowledge
empiricism
the theory that all knowledge comes from sensory experiences and is therefore able to be recorded
requirements for knowledge to be empirical
must be based on a sensory experiences
must be able to withstand testing by experiments, or observations in the natural world
evidence must be tested in observable experiments
role of empiricism to the scientific method
observations and knowledge can be recorded as data
data is used to identify trends
trends are used to develop theories
induction
considers observations made about the world to generalise into a paradigm/theory/model
example of inductive reasoning
Newton’s laws of motion
deduction
using pre-existing theories to seek a specific observation to confirm or refute a hypothesis
example of deductive reasoning
Kepler’s laws of planetary orbits/motion
parsimony
adoption of the simplest assumption when forming a theory or interpreting data
suggests that the solution that uses the fewest resources to solve a problem is preferred
used in accordance with Occam’s razor
Occam’s razor
when multiple explanations could be possible, the one with the least amount of assumptions is correct
falsifiability
ability to prove a hypothesis false
why is falsifiability important
a hypothesis cannot be proven, only NOT disproved
therefore the hypothesis must have logical observations that can falsify it
hypothesis is not able to be twisted to fit any truth → why Freud and Marx are disproved
confirmation bias
when the individual’s prior knowledge of a theory can influence their observations, or change how they interpret their data
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