Monday, January 19, 2015

Wheel... Of.... Science

Drew this for my biostatistics course. The center is a theory. Radiating from the center are hypotheses are a produced through deduction. From each hypothesis, predictions are produced. I explained that we don't test or prove theories or even hypotheses - where the rubber meets the road, are the predictions. Hypotheses are the mechanisms we think are at work and cannot be tested directly but we come of up with experiments and predictions that we can test. I call it a wheel because it can move.

As we test our predictions and evaluate the hypotheses that generate them, we can reflect on the theory and adjust the theory accordingly. I gave the example of the theory of evolution through natural selection and Darwin's inclusion of Lamarckian evolution. Although Darwin was wrong to include Lamarckian evolution, it caused us to adjust how we think of natural selection, not ditch it all together. 



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