10 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
The Scientific Method Produces General Principles by Whic...
Just as the first means by which science reduces the danger of error is the continual comparison of ideas and concepts, the second is the formulation of general principles by means of which we can understand cause-and-effect or sequential relationships among events. The function of a general principle or scientific law is twofold; to organize discrete objects and events in systematic order so that we can deal with them more effectively and exercise greater control over them; and to provide a ...10 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
The Scientific Process Encompasses Numerous Viewpoints
We can get rid of outdated ways of looking at things, of fixed experience, of ingrained intellectual habits, only by constantly expanding our experience and continually comparing one idea with another in order to select the better one. Because systematic science is the result of constant comparison of innumerable materials and experiences, it cannot be produced by individual effort; it is a social product. Science has no nationality; it admits no prejudices. Scientific discoveries made in one...10 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
The Scientific Method is a Process for Knowing that is Su...
Since mere observation cannot provide the solution to a problem, no matter how accurately it is conducted the necessary next step is inference the process which leads from the present to the future, from the known to the unknown. Every inference is a sort of adventure. Another difference between the scientific method and ordinary common sense is that the former controls the adventure more carefully, and thus reduces the danger involved. The more rigorous the method the less the danger. Safegu...05 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
Bacon's Inductive Method
Bacon s adaptation of traditional methods was to begin with observation of discrete facts, and then from observed similarities in many separate events, to arrive at generalizations—and thus he formulated his inductive method. This method ofinduction enabled him to derive rational generalizations from his observations of disparate facts. Bacon's method was influential in the development of modern science, which was already in the process of development during his life-time.
Bacon did not di...Folksonomies: philosophy epistemology
Folksonomies: philosophy epistemology
05 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
How Descartes Broke With Classical Thinking
Classical thinking had assigned different natures to different things—minerals had one nature, stars another, plants another. But Descartes discarded these distinctions and looked upon all things as being equal in nature. The mystical distinction among the natures of things thus disappeared. For example, respiration in the human body and the circulation of blood were no longer inexplicable, or virtually magic phenomena; both could now be treated in terms of extension and motion. The circula...Folksonomies: philosophy epistemology
Folksonomies: philosophy epistemology
05 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
Aristotle Categorized Species as Immutable, the Theory of...
Aristotle noted three characteristics of his concept of species. First, each species is a whole. It is comprehensive, representative of all the objects embraced within it, and any one of these objects may be used as an example of all others. The species tree, for example, embraces all trees whether they are used for timber or for firewood; and any given tree may exemplify the species which includes all trees.
Second, any one species comprises objects which have common or identical elements o...Folksonomies: philosophy epistemology
Folksonomies: philosophy epistemology
Aristotle's system of thought, which defined and categorized the world, gave humans the ability to discuss and debate with common references. But it was flawed in that it defined classifications as immutable and unchanging.
25 SEP 2025 by ideonexus
How Media-Metaphors Change Thought
But our media-metaphors are not so explicit or so vivid as these, and they are far more complex. In understanding their metaphorical function, we must take into account the symbolic forms of their information, the source of their information, the quantity and speed of their information; the context in which their information is experienced. Thus, it takes some digging to get at them, to grasp, for example, that a clock recreates time as an independent, mathematically precise sequence; that wr...14 APR 2025 by ideonexus
Do Not Be Governed by Chance
The periodic movements of the universe are the same, up and down from age to age. And either the universal intelligence puts itself in motion for every separate effect, and if this is so, be thou content with that which is the result of its activity; or it puts itself in motion once, and everything else comes by way of sequence in a manner; or indivisible elements are the origin of all things.- In a word, if there is a god, all is well; and if chance rules, do not thou also be governed by it.Folksonomies: mindfulness stoicism
Folksonomies: mindfulness stoicism
01 DEC 2024 by ideonexus
Stone Tools in Europe Were Misinterpreted
For hundreds of years Europeans appear to have been oblivious to the existence of stone tools. Presumably many people saw them. At least it is hard for me to believe that no stone axes, spear points, or arrowheads turned up in plowed fields, dried streambeds, or eroded hillsides. But, as William Stiebing observes, there is no mention of them prior to the 16th century. People apparently “did not notice them. To them such things were just so many more rocks.”3 Writings from the 16th century...26 AUG 2024 by ideonexus