Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
It is explanatory knowledge that provides scientific understanding of the world. (Salmon, 2006, pg. 3) [ 1 ] According to the National Research Council (United States) : "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."
Established scientific theories have withstood rigorous scrutiny and embody scientific knowledge. A scientific theory differs from a scientific fact or scientific law in that a theory seeks to explain "why" or "how", whereas a fact is a simple, basic observation and a law is an empirical description of a relationship between facts and/or other ...
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. The scientific method involves careful observation coupled with rigorous skepticism, because cognitive assumptions can distort the interpretation of the observation.
This leads to a form of circularity, known as the problem of the criterion: criteria of knowledge are needed to identify individual cases of knowledge and cases of knowledge are needed to learn what the criteria of knowledge are. [12] [13] [14] Two approaches to this problem have been suggested: methodism and particularism. Methodists put their ...
A priori knowledge is independent from any experience. Examples include mathematics, [i] tautologies and deduction from pure reason. [ii] A posteriori knowledge depends on empirical evidence. Examples include most fields of science and aspects of personal knowledge.
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. [1] [2] Modern science is typically divided into two or three major branches: [3] the natural sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry, and biology), which study the physical world; and the behavioural sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology ...
Scientific evidence is evidence that serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis, [1] although scientists also use evidence in other ways, such as when applying theories to practical problems. [2] Such evidence is expected to be empirical evidence and interpretable in accordance with the scientific method.
Empirical evidence is essential to a posteriori knowledge or empirical knowledge, knowledge whose justification or falsification depends on experience or experiment. A priori knowledge, on the other hand, is seen either as innate or as justified by rational intuition and therefore as not dependent on empirical evidence.