• El Zi
    2
    This is my 1st post in this forum, and it may fit for this category or "the philosophy of science", I'm not sure, but it's about knowledge in general, so it should probably be here.

    There's a lot of ideas I have that I'm thinking to discuss here, this is just the 1st.

    Anyway, the scientific method, this text (from Wikipedia) sums it up in regard to this thread:

    • Define a question
    • Gather information and resources (observe)
    • Form an explanatory hypothesis
    • Test the hypothesis by performing an experiment and collecting data in a reproducible manner
    • Analyze the data
    • Interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
    • Publish results
    • Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

    Now, in general, it's probably not a secret that humans can gather a lot of "knowledge" that is collected by observations, like in the scientific method, but in an even more "baseless" way.

    For example, I know some people who argue that their "life experience" is their main source of knowledge.

    But there's some difference between what they learn via "life experience" and the scientific method, even thought both are centered around experiments: the scientific method also includes steps that exist to avoid jumping to conclusions (logical fallacies, in other words, and especially the final step), avoid any biases, and so on.

    And when one learns via "life experience", this is one example of "knowledge" that is much more doubtful (in general) than anything that is considered "correct" in the scientific community.

    If this is hard to understand, ask me to give examples of "life experience" and why it's impossible to achieve any knowledge with it that's even as "reliable" as knowledge from the scientific method.

    So, since it's easy to doubt all the scientific method because it's also based on many epistemological assumptions (such as, blindly trusting our senses), I'll ask this:

    Are there are other types of "learning", other than 'life experience', that may be considered even more baseless than the scientific method?

    I'd like to know about them.
  • 3rdClassCitizen
    35
    Inductive reasoning is the belief that you select an answer first, then test it for correctness. It most often results in seeing observations through a biased filter. I believe that deductive reasoning is a better method for finding an answer that likely isn't at first obvious.
    If one can truly delineate all possibilities, and logically and correctly eliminate all but one, then the remaining possibility is the answer, proven indirectly.
    This is not as easy as it sounds. Improbable is very often mistakenly defined as impossible, and eliminated unjustly. With many mysteries of science, what seems to be the least probable often turns out to be the correct answer.
    Example: When a man flips a coin, on Earth, how many possible outcomes ensue? Most would say three. Heads, tails, and balanced on the edge.
    Explosions occur on Earth, collisions, collapsing of structures. If These things occurred after the coin is flipped, but before it landed, the result might be that the coin is destroyed, or lost. A nuke could vaporize the coin. So a fourth possibility ensues, "none of the above".
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