Principle of Science and Scientific Reasoning

Principle of science and scientific
reasoning
Background in critical thinking
• Continually question and challenge one owns idea and
those of others
– The decision is informed on data, fact, evidence, a
reasoned and rational perspective, then the ideas and
arguments have scientific merit and can be defended
• Critical thinker must approach any information with a
certain of doubt.
• Critical thinker consider the fact without presupposing
their content or how they are ordered. They must
remain open minded and must always be prepared to
assess new information
• The critical thinker should be cautiously skeptical of
evidence and argument being made. The level of
skeptical should be healthy, and not be to the extent
that the individual becomes inherently dogmatic. It
must be expressed to a degree which protects the
thinker from self delusion or error
• Critical thinker must be prepared to fully consider
views that are opposed to their views. This must be
done fairly and objectively in useful and helpful
manner.
• Critical thinker must be reflective and also always be
prepared to be wrong.
The process of critical thinking ultimately aims
to ensure, as far as is possible, that one’s
views and ideas are as clear as they can be,
that they are rational, logical, supported by
evidence and can be justified.
It is a method to ensure that one has reduced
the potential for the individual to delude
themselves with information that is fallacious
and argument that are illogical.
Principle of science and
scientific reasoning
• Facts in science
– Facts are data interpreted through theory.
– Science is not just concerned with the proof of
facts but also the organization of facts into
coherent knowledge (the structure and order of
facts and knowledge within global model)
• The nature of scientific theory
– A scientific theory is an explanation of a puzzling
aspect of the world
– The aim of theory is to suggest the best way to
understand the object to study at that time and
based on the evidence currently available
– The fundamental aspect of science is that theory
should be regarded as PROVISIONAL. Theories
exist in their current state only until more
evidence leads to refinement of existing
theoretical model or rejection of it. No theory can
be regarded as final.
• Principle of scientific reasoning: Falsifiability
and falsification
– In order for any claim to be held as scientific truth,
it must be falsifiable: we must be able to test it
and falsify it.
– To assures that if the claim being made is false
then the evidence will show it is false, if the claim
is true, then the evidence will not disprove it.
– if we have no evidence either way ( negative or
positive) because the claim cannot be tested, then
it is completely false.
• The role of premise and logic
– Any argument that is offered in support of
particular claim must be logically sound
– The soundness of an argument is based on the
premises made and the logical connection
between them.
– Argument should be
• Valid: conclusion follows unavoidably from its premises
• Sound: it is valid and all premises are true.
• Check this argument:
– “All human have hair on their head; David is a

human, therefore David has hair”
– “Peroxide hydrogen (H2O2) is an effective

substance to kill bacteria; Honey consists of
peroxide hydrogen, therefore Honey effectively
kills bacteria”
• The examples above are referred to as
SYLLOGISM in the field of logic
• It show a useful and important tool in
evaluating arguments.
• It illustrates how any complex argument can
be broken down or decompose into a series of
premises which have a particular connection
between them, leading to a necessary
connection.
• Avoid circular reasoning
– An argument must not stand on its conclusion but
on its premises, facts evidence and reason.
– A common mistakes often made by students:
fallacy of the circular argument
– A circular argument is one where a big assumption
(conclusion) is used to set up an argument which
then turn support the initial assumption.
– circular reasoning is often also referred to as
“begging the questions”, where the conclusion
begs the questions which is supposed to support
the conclusion
• Principles of scientific reasoning: the importance
of replicability
– When considering multiple sources of evidence we
need to make sure, as much as possible, that the
evidence is not due to chance, coincidence, or error.
– Findings which have been independently replicated
across studies and researchers should be given more
weight in argument than those which have not.
– However…. It would be unfair to critisize recent claims
for not having much support. The lack of support for
the new theory may simply be due to the fact that
science has simply not yet had chance to carry out
further studies.
• Principles of scientific reasoning: the
comprehensiveness of evidence
– It is crucial that any argument or theory does not
just consider the evidence which supports it and
ignore the evidence that contradicts it.
– Researcher sometimes concentrate only on
evidence that is consistent with the argument
being developed and ignore other evidence which
contradicts it. This known as confirmation bias
(where we are biased to only notice observations
that confirm our assumption)
Critical thinking and argumentation
• A scientific argumentation (based on the
process of critical thinking) is the construction
of a reasoned case for a particular conclusion,
over other potential conclusions, based on the
available evidence. So argument is really
based on sound reasoning, logic and evidence.
Critical thinking can help:
• To construct our own arguments that are
based on well-founded premises, based in
logic and reason, are rational and provide
useful understanding.
• To evaluate and assess the arguments put
forward from other sources in fair, objective,
and help manner.
Failure to construct an effective
argument due to:
• Limitation in writing style and ability
• Lack of any critical thinking being used to
construct a well reasoned argument
• Students often borrow and argument they
have read rtaher than provide and opinion of
it or even generate their own throgh objective
free thinking
• Characterizing the argument
– The quicker we can characterize an argument, the
easier it is to evaluate it clearly and fairly.
– Arguments generally consist of a number of
premises, reason statements and conclusion
statements. We can evaluate each items after
characterize them.
• Evaluating argument
– We cannot really evaluate an argument critically until we
understand it properly.
– Some basic tips on how to evaluate argument:
• Charaterize the argument appropirately
• Ask yourself –what an I being asked to accept (what are the claims
being made)
• Identify the premises, are these valid?
• Make sure you fully understand the argument in the manner in which
it is being proposed
• Identify both claimed and unclaimed logically links betwee the
premises (are these sound and supported?
• Identify any umbiguity
• Identify necessary and sufficient conditions and links between claims
• Think about methods to generate evidence
• Consider the nature, for and quality of the evidence
• Has any evidence been omitted from the argument being made?
• What are the reasonable conclusion that can be drawn?
• Examine the conclusion
• How complete is the argument
• Think of counter examples
• What evidence omitted from the argument?
• What is necessary amd sufficient for the
argument being made?
• The role of speculation
– Scientific speculation is usually characterized
appropriately
– The speculation often draws heavily on the correct
characterization of existing knowledge and theories
– Successful speculations often keep close theretical
proximity to the available information
– successful speculations are usually followed soon
after some empirical finding that speaks to the issue
one way or the other.

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Principle of science and scientific

– “All human have hair on their head; David is a

– “Peroxide hydrogen (H2O2) is an effective

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