PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF SCIENCE

 PHILOSOPHICAL LEARNING AND SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

What is philosophy? The word philosophy is come from ancient Greek word " Philosophia ". The word can explain as 'Philo" means love and 'Sophia' means wisdom. we can say the meaning of the word philosophy is love of wisdom. Further, Philosophy is the study fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, reasons, values, and existence. And also, it is a way of thinking about various subjects such as meaning, ethics, thought, value and time.

Scientific investigation helps us think outside the box to understand the natural world. Scientific investigation can be done by: Engaging in science-oriented questions that challenge thinking. Giving priority to evidence when responding to questions. Scientific investigation generally aims to obtain knowledge in the form of testable explanations that scientists can use to predict the results of future experiments.

Different between science and philosophy

Science is about empirical knowledge. philosophy is ​also about a priori knowledge. Science is about descriptive fact’s philosophy is also about normative truths. Science is about physical object’s philosophy is also about abstract objects.

philosophy is also about prior knowledge and science is about descriptive facts. philosophy is also about normative truths and science is about objects.

Learning is a complicated task. Learning to focus on a subject, to explain its theories, to understand, to question what is in it, to solve problems, to remember what is learned, to put it into practice. And it is the acquisition and mastery of what is already known by an individual. And its the extension and clarification of meaning of an individual experience.

PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD

Philosophical Method is simply, the study of the way to do philosophy. This method used by philosophers involving such elements as,

• Questioning
• Critical discussion
• Rational argumentations 
• Systemic presentation 

There is not a just one method to answer philosophical question because the answer is depending on the way of thinking.

VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY

like every different study, goals in general at knowledge. The knowledge it goals it is the type of knowledge which offers unity and system to the frame of the sciences, and the sort which ends up from a critical exam of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs.

Invention

An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process. It may be an improvement upon a machine or product or a new process for creating an object or a result.

Scientific investigation is a plan for asking questions and testing possible answers. A scientific investigation typically begins with observations. A hypothesis is a possible logical answer to a scientific question, based on scientific knowledge.

According to Invention I think this have two sides one is good Invention and Worst Invention. Good Invention we use for day-to-day life and they easy our works but Worst Invention destroy our things. Some of examples are,

•   Weapons
•   Trees cutting machines
•   Smoking Device

Scientific statement

A scientific statement is one that could possibly be proven wrong. Such a statement is said to be falsifiable. However, a falsifiable statement always remains tentative and open to the possibility that it is wrong. “The sun revolves around the earth” is a scientific statement.

Most of statements are wrong when the new statement comes. Ancient times some are sad earth is flat after development of technology we knows, Earth is round therefore we cannot believe always scientific statement are right.

Scientific testing

Scientific testing involves figuring out what we would expect to observe if an idea were correct and comparing that expectation to what we actually observe. On the other hand, an invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process.

THEORIES

The definition of a theory is an idea to explain something, or a set of guiding principles. Einstein's ideas about relativity are an example of the theory of relativity. The scientific principles of evolution that are used to explain human life are an example of the theory of evolution. Some of examples are,

•    Big Bang Theory.
•    Atomic Theory
•    Quantum Field Theory.

My opinion is theory are same to the scientific statement. If we prove some statement it can be get as theory.

OBSERVATIONS

The definition of an observation is the act of noticing something or a judgment or inference from something seen or experienced. An example of observation is the watching of Haley's Comet. An example of observation is making the statement that a teacher is proficient from watching him teach several times.

I think observation is the important part of the Scientific investigation. Every scientific statement and Scientific testing all are start with observation.

HYPOTHESIS

A hypothesis is a specific statement of prediction. It describes in concrete (rather than theoretical) terms what you expect will happen in your study. For examples If you get at least 6 hours of sleep, you will do better on tests than if you get less sleep. If you drop a ball, it will fall toward the ground. If you drink coffee before going to bed, then it will take longer to fall asleep.

Hypothesis is an assumption that is made on the basis of some evidence. This is the initial point of any investigation that translates the research questions into a prediction. It includes components like variables, population and the relation between the variables. A research hypothesis is a hypothesis that is used to test the relationship between two or more variables.

If we have some problems or misunderstanding situation, we can make hypothesis and finding what happen after getting conclusions we can clearly understand problems.

Basic steps in testing a hypothesis

• Making assumptions
• Stating the research and null hypotheses and selecting (setting) alpha
• Selecting the sampling distribution and specifying the test statistic
• Computing the test statistic
• Making a decision and interpreting the results

REAL WORLD HYPOTHESIS TESTING EXAMPLES

Spontaneous generation

Spontaneous generation is a body of thought on the ordinary formation of living organisms without descent from similar organisms. The theory of spontaneous generation held that living creatures could arise from nonliving matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular.

After testing the hypothesis, they can figure it out life not arise from non-living things.

I wish that now you can know the how philosophical learning and scientific investigation, important is it. Also, we can clear the misunderstanding people and society according to the hypothesis. Main use of it is we can know the how to solve problems day to day life using basic steps in testing a hypothesis. Using this blogger and we can know lot of knowledge and understanding different perspective and the study of the different types of problem-solving methods. 

Scientific inquiry and Hypothesis Testing

SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY STARTS WITH OBSERVATION. THE MORE ONE CAN SEE, THE MORE ONE CAN INVESTIGATE

Test may be called as a tool, a question, set of questions, and an examination which use to measure a particular characteristics of an individuals. Investigation, examination, inquiry, research express the idea of an active effort to find out something. But a test is a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something it's like a trail or experiment. By this article I would like to present about simple discussion about scientific inquiry, reasoning and hypothesis testing. 

Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work.

Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work. Inquiry also refers to the activities of students in which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world. 

WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY?

Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work.

Models of scientific inquiry have two functions. First, to provide a descriptive account of how scientific inquiry is carried out in practice, and second, to provide an explanatory account of why scientific inquiry succeeds as well as it appears to do in arriving at genuine knowledge. 

REASONING

Reasoning is the process of thinking about something in a logical way in order to form a conclusion or judgment. The ability of the mind to think and understand things in a logical way.

Inductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning, or inductive logic, is a type of reasoning that involves drawing a general conclusion from a set of specific observations. Some people think of inductive reasoning as “bottom-up” logic, because it involves widening specific premises out into broader generalizations.

Deductive Reasoning

Deductive reasoning, also deductive logic, is the process of reasoning from one or more statements to reach a logical conclusion. Deductive reasoning goes in the same direction as that of the conditionals, and links premises with conclusions.

HYPOTHESIS TESTING

A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous observations that cannot satisfactorily be explained with the available scientific theories.

Hypothesis is a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.  A hypothesis is when you suppose something to be true before you know whether it is or not so that you can test it to see if it's true. 

IS THAT EARTH FLAT OR SPHERICAL?

Members of the Flat Earth Society claim to believe the Earth is flat. Walking around on the planet's surface, it looks and feels flat, so they deem all evidence to the contrary, such as satellite photos of Earth as a sphere, to be fabrications of a "round Earth conspiracy" orchestrated by NASA and other government agencies.

Without being in the sky, it is impossible to see the curvature of the Earth. However, you can always see a demonstration of this if you visit a harbor or any place with a wide-open view of the water. If you are able to watch a ship sail off to sea, watch its mast and flag as it fades off into the distance. You will notice that, in fact, it does not "fade off into the distance" at all; instead, you will see its mast and flag appear to slowly sink. The ship sailed beyond the point at which you would see it. 

It's as if you're watching it go over to the other side of a hill. This phenomenon can only be explained by a sphere-shaped planet.

Hypothesis testing is used to assess the plausibility of a hypothesis by using sample data. The test provides evidence concerning the plausibility of the hypothesis, given the data.

Dinesh Shiwantha Wanigathunga

dineshshiwantha@gmail.com