But that number is not the same as the truth of the generality that is supposed to underlie the number. In fact, as a physician, I don't even need to use the word "temperature" when using a thermometer. I can just correlate the number on the thermometer with the patient's status and start treatment. The scientific method encourages doctors to find some exact and invariable understanding of temperature by using a thermometer while disregarding the human and the personal asking whether the patient feels hot or cold.
But doctors also recognize that discounting a patient's symptoms makes no sense. Although imperfect, it is actually more real and certainly more relevant than the vague concept of temperature as an "emergent property.
In medicine, the scientific method generates useful abstract concepts by studying thousands of bodies shorn of their attributes except for the handful being studied; those concepts are then applied to individual bodies in the form of diagnostic categories and treatments. But the human mind is far more singular. To understand the error in the "second phase" of the scientific revolution, imagine a man, in trying to understand an object, moving away from that object rather than toward it.
Instead of handling the object and examining it on all sides, he pushes it into the distance so that all details of color and unevenness of surface disappear, and only the object's outline remains on the horizon. Because the object is now so smooth and uniform, the man thinks he has a clear understanding of it.
This would be a delusion, of course, yet this is what professionals pushing the second phase of the scientific revolution argue: place people at a distance; siphon away all but a few of their individual attributes; create general, smooth, and uniform concepts from people's minds; and we will better understand them.
The reason this makes no sense is also the reason why the scientific revolution launched by Newton began in astronomy, rather than in medicine, psychology, or human science: The scientific method works best when applied to an area we know little about.
We sit on a tiny speck in the universe and make extremely limited observations about stars, planets, and galaxies. We can talk about them only in the simplest terms. Where there may be curves or parabolas, we see only a tiny fraction of the path from one angle and so call it a line.
The star at a distance really appears to be smooth and uniform, even though it's not. Conveniently for astronomers, their ignorance is not a matter of choice. For similar reasons, physics and chemistry are the next most perfect sciences. Their scales are so tiny that we can't see most of the details, only general effects here and there. For example, when chemists mix substances, the result is sometimes a new color or a precipitate.
The precise movements of all the molecules in the mixture are unknown to chemists, just as the precise movements of all the stars in the universe are unknown to astronomers, yet certain observable changes do occur. Chemists single them out as the main phenomena, when in fact a lot more is involved.
By focusing on just a few facts and dismissing countless others, chemists are able to arrange them in some order, generalize about them, and convey the sense of an ideal science the way astronomers do. It is no coincidence that the most perfect equations in chemistry involve gases, which are often invisible and the least amenable to detailed description.
The closer we get to our subject and the more we know, however, the more the scientific method breaks down. An astronomer can feel comfortable calling a faraway star's path a line, even though it may curve out there at the edge of the universe; he can assume the scientific method has revealed the truth, and it will likely never be disproven.
But as a doctor, I can't focus on a few facts to the exclusion of others, for life is the level on which I work. In the operating room, I see people react differently to anesthesia all the time; I see lines become curves.
I see a patient's facial expression convey more than a supposedly objective measurement. I see the chaos of a dappled skin pattern convey more accurate information than what the scientific method has built out of carefully isolated details.
And though there is a great deal of variety in how human bodies react, it is nothing compared to the variety and unpredictability of human behavior. This is the level on which social scientists, human scientists, and psychologists work, and, unlike faraway stars, human life is something that we know a lot about. For every one observation made about stars, poets and philosophers have made millions about people's habits, behaviors, and feelings. All people, expertly trained and uneducated alike, are intimately familiar with life.
This is why the scientific method works so poorly on the level of life. Compared to astronomy, we see so much more. We know so many more details, and therefore we can watch the scientific method go wrong. Even the most perfect concepts in the hard sciences are unreal. For example, Newton's concept of absolute motion yielded a mathematical formula for planetary movement under certain conditions. The path it predicts is unreal. True, the formula is very accurate, and it lets scientists predict celestial events, but previous formulas also foretold astronomical events with some accuracy.
Newton's formula based on absolute motion is a more convenient fiction than prior formulas, but no less a fiction. In chemistry, the perfect gas is a gas that achieves a fixed and stable condition in which its molecules cease to interact with one another.
But such conditions never actually arise. At most, equations for the perfect gas apply exactly to a real gas at one theoretical point, when the state of an ever-changing gas corresponds exactly to that of a perfect gas. If a perfect state is impossible to achieve with inanimate objects, it is infinitely more impossible to achieve with human beings. Our minds are in constant flux. The psychologist's concepts, the sociologist's categories, the economist's equations, and the cognitive neuroscientist's principles are all flawed.
They depend on a stable state, and yet no one position in life can be maintained in the midst of life's constant motion and innumerable changes. Even if perfect stability could occur, it would do so for only an instant.
The difference between Newton and today's scientific revolutionaries is that the former could conceal the scientific method's defects while the latter cannot. Newton isolated certain celestial phenomena and created an unreal situation through his concept of absolute motion. From there, he derived an equation to estimate planetary motion. That equation works quite well because we test it under conditions that replicate the state of ignorance that Newton created when he limited the conditions of his experiment.
He isolated facts and got away with it. Today's revolutionaries, on the other hand, sometimes exhibit a misplaced confidence in the scientific method, believing that they can isolate human variables and apply their concepts in unreal situations. In their case, reality always hits back. Newton had warned others not to take the method too far. But his advice was forgotten, as the allure of science and its authority proved irresistible in many disciplines not well-suited for it.
Remember, the limits placed on science all those years ago and still essential today mean that science can only confirm or deny natural phenomena — not supernatural ones. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? And yet, having said all this, science is still of huge value to the Christian: there are plenty of science questions that can help us know about God.
But that, dear readers, would be another article altogether…. A Brief History of Time. Bantam Books. What should you say when your science teacher objects to Christianity?
This article offers some simple ways to respond. Is belief in Christianity and God like believing in the tooth fairy? Or are there rational grounds that justify the beliefs of Christians? If you've ever been embarrassed by the miracles in the Bible, here are some thoughts to help you respond. Phrenology Phrenology, also known as craniology, was a "science" popular during the early s that was centered around the idea that the brain was an organ of the mind. Pseudo-Scientists are often not in touch with main-stream science : Scientific research has since the s shown how though the brain is indeed divided into sections, each section does not determine a characteristic or personality trait, but instead controls a specific function such as memory or motor skills.
Likewise, it has been concluded that the brain conforms to the shape of the skull , rather than the skull conforming to the shape of the brain meaning the bumps of a persons skull have nothing to do with the shape of the brain. Back in the s, little knowledge existed about the realities of brain structure and function, so the concept wasn't as reflexive of pseudo-science as it is today.
However, some doctors and scientist still believe in the basic tenets of phrenology. Phrenology today exists as a classic form of pseudo-science as it goes against the common understanding about how the brain functions. Often driven by social, political or commercial goals - Indeed, the main goal of phrenology was a political and social one: to prove the dominance of the white race over other races.
Therefore, they concluded, they were smarter and superior. It was later revealed that the scientists were biased while conducting the experiment and that they were previously aware of what race each brain belonged to.
The experiment was repeated and this time the scientists were not aware of the race and they concluded that the brains were of equal size. The second experiment better conforms to the scientific method, as in this case the scientists objectively measured the brains, while in the first case the bias of the scientists lead to their conclusions.
Thus, this situation demonstrates a two-fold level of defective science because not only was the idea of measuring the brains to determine personality and intelligence not correct all together, but the methods in which the scientists were doing this was also flawed. Phrenology was also commercially driven, since phrenology parlors where very wide spread and many devices were on the market to be used to measure. Pseudo-Scientists are often driven by the egos of the "scientists" - In the book Phrenology and the origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism by John Van Whye, Van Whye quotes about the main discoverer of Phrenology Franz Joseph Gall, that " the peculiar incentive behind Gall's fascination with explaining individuals' differences may have lain in his hubris" Van Whye Of the 12 children in his family, Gall was the sharpest and brightest and naturally interested in distinguishing factors between children.
Even as a young school boy, Gall noticed that the other children who were just as good at memorization as he was all had protruding eyes, which lead him to the idea of the basis of phrenology, that the characteristics of one's head indicates his or her intelligence. Reflexology Reflexology is a way of treatment that involves physically applying pressure to the feet or hands with the belief that each are divided up into different zones that are "connected" to other parts of the body.
Pseudo-Scientists are often not in touch with main-stream science : No Scientific research has proven the validity of reflexology and how in fact it would actually work.
In , the Australian Medical Journal conducted an extensive study on reflexology and concluded "The best evidence available to date does not demonstrate convincingly that reflexology is an effective treatment for any medical condition".
However, despite this lack of evidence, Reflexology continues. Pseudoscience often uses very vague, yet seemingly technical terms terms A main focus of reflexology is that the pressure on the foot removes any blockage of Qi, the "life energy force" and restores balance to lead to better health.
Terms like "vital energy" or "energy blockage" which are used to talk about reflexology are classic pseudo-science terms; they sound impressive yet have no meaning to us Furthermore, famous names and testimonials are often used for support rather than scientific evidence. Because pseudo-science beliefs do not use scientific data for support, they must rely on individual circumstances when their product, idea, etc. For example, on the home page of well-known reflexologist Laura Norman's home page, she has a quote of Regis Philben past host of W ho Wants to be a Millionaire?
Distinguishing Pseudo-Science from other types of invalid science An important distinction should be made between Pseudo-science and other types of defective science. From Pseudo-Science to Science There have been incidents where what was once considered pseudo-science became a respectable theory. Limitations of the Scientific Method Due to the need to have completely controlled experiments to test a hypothesis, science can not prove everything.
Concept Assessment Determine if each statement is true or false see answers at bottom of the page What is considered Pseudo-Science today will always be considered Pseudo-Science A person has a cold and decides to seek reflexology treatment. The next day, the person gets better.
This means reflexology is a valid scientific theory Just because "science" is immoral or defective does not necessarily mean it is Pseudo-Science Famous people are used in advertisements for products such as gatorade. This means these products are Pseudo-Science Medically based Pseudo-Science such as homeopathy, reflexology or acupuncture have absolutely no benefits to people. References Ernst, Ezard. Van, Wyhe John. Phrenology and the Origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism. Aldershot, Hanst, England: Ashgate, Yount, Lisa.
New York: Chelsea House, Answers to concept assessment False- just because something is considered pseudo-science today, does not mean it will always be. Occasionally, certain organizations use scientific data to advance their causes. This blurs the line between science and morality and encourages the creation of "pseudo-science," which tries to legitimize a product or idea with a claim that has not been subjected to rigorous testing.
And yet, used properly, the scientific method is one of the most valuable tools humans have ever created. It helps us solve everyday problems around the house and, at the same time, helps us understand profound questions about the world and universe in which we live.
Most of the time, two competing theories can't exist to describe one phenomenon. But in the case of light , one theory is not enough. Many experiments support the notion that light behaves like a longitudinal wave. Taken collectively, these experiments have given rise to the wave theory of light. Other experiments, however, support the notion that light behaves as a particle.
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