Philosophical ideas or positions
the requirement that a claim be willingly abandoned when the preponderance of evidence
indicates that it's false
openness to falsification
a logical transition from one thought to another
inference
a cause that must occur in order for the effect to come about
necessary cause
public records produced by observation, sensory experience, or some measuring device; allow
observations to be recorded and compared
data
a random variable that has independent outcomes that are all equally likely
fair
constructed to represent phenomena of interest and investigated to learn about those phenomena
scientific model
a model's applicability to a greater number of target systems
generality
the thesis that science provides natural explanations of natural phenomena
naturalism
a situation, real or imagined, in which the premises of an argument are true but the conclusion
false; shows that a deductive argument is invalid
counterexample
a cause that always brings about the effect
sufficient cause
an experiment that decisively adjudicates between two hypotheses
crucial experiment
the set of all values a random variable can take on; also called sample space
Outcome space
the individuals composing the sample are selected randomly from the population
random sampling
the extent to which a model finely specifies features of a target system
precision
to test a hypothesis, an expectation is deductively inferred from the hypothesis, then compared
with an observation; violation of the expectation deductively refutes the hypothesis, while a match
with the expectation nondeductively boosts support for the hypothesis
hypothetico-deductive method
a deductive inference in which the truth of the premises logically guarantees the truth of the
conclusion
valid inference
a cause that raises the probability of an outcome occurring but does not guarantee the outcome;
also called apartial c a u s e
contributory cause
mathematical equations that use variables, parameters, and constants to represent one or more target systems
mathematical model
a kind of default assumption; in statistical hypothesis-testing, often this just amounts to the
hypothesis that nothing unusual is going on or that two variables are independent
null hypothesis
an imagined intervention on an imagined system to learn about the role of the independent
thought experiment
a comprehensive account of phenomena, broader and more explanatory than individual
hypotheses and models and backed by more evidence
scientific theory
the thesis that scientific reasoning proceeds by attempting to disprove claims rather than to prove
them right
falsificationism
a condition that must be satisfied for the occurrence of the specified outcome
necessary condition
two events are correlated but aren't causally related in any way
spurious correlation
a regimented representation of data, often with the aim of discerning whether the data count as
evidence for a given hypothesis
data model
how improbable, given the null hypothesis, an experimental result must be to warrant rejecting the null hypothesis
significance level
the real-world system that scientists want to study using a model
target system
when it is possible to describe what kind of evidence would, if found, show a claim to be false;
without being falsifiable, a claim would be unscientific
falsifiable
the investigation of science, focused especially on questions of what science should be like in
order to be a trustworthy route to knowledge and to achieve the other ends we want it to have,
such as usefulness to society
philosophy of science
the extent to which a rational agent should believe some claim
rational degree of belief
sufficiently justified truths about how things work and why they are the way they are
explanatory knowledge
two events for which the occurrence of one does not increase or decrease the probability of the
other; that is, when Pr(Y|X) = PrY) and Pr(X|Y) = Pr(X)
statistically independent
anything that can vary, change, or occur in different states
variable
claims made about entities, properties, or occurrences that are not directly observable
Theoretical claims
the view that everything in the universe is composed of physical matter
physicalism
the probability that the conclusion is true assuming that all the premises are true
strength of inductive inference
using tools to enhance our powers of observation beyond what they ordinarily include
super-observational access
the probability of the observed data assuming the null hypothesis is true
p-value
the particular state or quantity of a variable in some instance
value of a variable
a statement about how things are without making any value judgments
descriptive claim
the view that appealing to the fundamental laws of physics will ultimately explain all the features of the world
reductionism
an inference that cannot be invalidated by the addition of new information
monotonic inference
a model that represents the component parts and operations constituting some recurring process
mechanistic model
how predictable the values of one variable are based on the values of the other variable
strength of correlation
the individuals composing the sample are selected randomly from the population
random sampling
a possible consequence of the H-D method; the observation contradicts the expectation
deductively inferred from the hypothesis, so the hypothesis is deductively proven to be false
refutation
when evidence is insufficient to determine which of multiple theories or hypotheses is true
underdetermination
a valid deductive argument with all true premises
sound inference
conducting an experiment or analyze data using different instruments or techniques to detect any
variation depending on instruments or experimental design
triangulation
in null hypothesis significance testing, the outcome is found to be unlikely enough if the null
hypothesis is true that it provides grounds for rejecting the null hypothesis
statistically significant
external experimental validity
the extent to which experimental results generalize from the experimental conditions to other
conditions-especially to the phenomena the experiment is supposed to yield knowledge about
external experimental validity
the idea that the natural world is sufficiently uniform, or unchanging, that we are justified in
thinking our future experiences will resemble our past experiences
uniformity of nature
the thesis that a belief's justification is determined by how well it is supported by evidence
evidentialism