Geology 109, General Oceanography
Spring 1996, Learning Community Section
Unit1, Topic 1 -- How to Look at this Class.

The Scientist's World

The Basic Assumption

A real world exists and we can perceive it with our senses.

A "Model' of the Scientist's "Worlds"



Requires a separation of the "Real World" from the brain's "Conceptual Image of that Real World".

Assumption of the Existence of a Real World?

• Clearly philosophically debated
  ---- expected in a Philosophy Class but not very productive in this class.

• Rules out "Supernatural" Occurences
  • Note that this exclusion of supernatural events does not suggest that the right observations have been made or that we are capable of explaining the observations at any particular moment!

  • The "one-time" unrepeatable "observation" receives a very low credibility, if any, in the development of a scientific conceptual model.

Linkage between Real and Conceptual Worlds


Based on observations, data, facts, etc. and
the repeatability of the observations is VERY important!

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Development of Conceptual Models

Step One
The Inductive Process... creating the model, explanation or "hypothesis"


INDUCTION

An important process in human processing of information, it is illustrated well by Sherlock Holmes' putting all the "facts" together to create his incredible explanations of reality.

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Step Two
The Deductive Process...testing the "hypothesis"


DEDUCTION

Putting explanations of reality or hypotheses to the test,
a role that Dr. Watson plays in the Sherlock Holmes books.

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Step Three
Validation of the Model


PROGRESSION IN STATURE

Via extensive deductive testing of the model, and positive results, the idea gains stature in the scientific community. There is no tribunal that decides upon elevation of a hypothesis to a theory or a theory to a scientific law. It happens as models explain the real world effectively and allow effective predictions.

Remember:

• advances in science are frequently made by individuals who "Question Authority!" (Might change your attitude toward the bumper sticker you see on an old VW bus in Berkeley and or lead you to being the next Albert Einstein.....)

• the process is, importantly, a human process and can it can thrive (or suffer from) the nature of the human species.
  As such intuition, creativity, ethical issues and communications play important roles
  
  
• absolute truth in science is only as good as the extent of inductive testing of the model and that even great predictive models can be shown to be false and/or limited in their application.

Some examples of major conceptual changes in the human view of the real world

1. Flat to Spherical Earth

What is the evidence that an individual can observe?

2. Geocentric to Heliocentric Models


The Catholic Church and Galileo

3. Biological Evolution


Still challenging the human models of reality, example of the School Board in San Diego

4. Fixed to Mobile Continents


Your instructor's own education spanning the change...taught that continents were fixed and oceans permanent in undergraduate school and that continents engaged in a ongoing "slam dance" in graduate school

5. Others????

Applying it to Reading Assignment

How do the following illustrate an aspect of the scientific method?
• Ben Franklin -- 1769 (physical oceanography)

• H.M.S. Challenger -- 1872 - 1876 (all aspects)

• Nansen and the Fram

• Wegner - 1912 (marine geology)