Reflection on The Lecture Session on Scientific Methods and The Nature of Science

At this class session, the concept of “The Nature of Science” was the introductory topic the students. It forced us to think about whether science is subjective and or objective. Even if a scientist thinks objectively and proposes a statement, he or she could only verify that by researching facts that can support said statement. Whereas, if another scientist thinks subjectively and proposes a statement, he or she could not verify said statement by providing solid-based facts and or figures. In other words, Objectivity in science is mainly unbiased whilst subjectivity in science is mainly biased. I before was misinterpreted by thinking that “Science” was solely based on experiments. Little did I know, that the conceptualization was based on the laws of nature? It allows scientists to predict and check observations and or theories that he or she may have proposed when looking at science and its’ consistent patterns. I strongly believe that even though science entails the focus of environmental factors and nature, solid evidence ought to be proposed with facts to verify any given theory.

When I think about “Environmental factors”, I consider the aquatic life, transportation, natural resources, politics and climate change of Trinidad and Tobago. The solid evidence would be required in attempt, for one’s theory and or statement to hopefully gain acceptance under the scientific laws of science. Theory and or statement’s considered for acceptance under the scientific laws of science. Wherein, with the “Scientific laws”, I would state that this involves the concrete evidence accompanied by a scientist’s theory and or statement. Next, we did a class activity that allowed us to answer two crucial questions. What do you see? How do you see?

The first image was that of a tree but the tricky aspect of it all was that there were other images, within this said one image. At first, I only saw a lion and bird but when encountering the same image a second time, I saw a monkey and fishes. In my opinion, this collection of images for testing one’s visual abilities and interpretational skills. It portrayed the ideal function of “seeing the bigger picture” and in extension seeing a more detailed artistic vision of any given image. It’s clear that the human mind does help a person with perceptions. The senses of a human body and its’ mind are all connected, as they act as waves that send messages to the brain. This is how the brain decipher, what the senses are trying to tell it or figure out. Whether it be, building a puzzle or completing a mathematical calculation. Many ancient philosophers such as: Aristotle would have used the method of induction to make observations and construct their own theories. These said philosophers, would have done this without any earlier knowledge of certain idealistic in the earlier times and I found this very astonishing. In pre-historic times, the men would have already established laws and theories that are now being re-established present-day. This is mainly due to the obvious fact that there were no records of said laws and theories or no one to make documentation of these theories.

Similarly, “Christopher Columbus” claimed to have discovered “a new world”, when he only re-discovered what was already in existence, being that of the Caribbean. This is how I was able to make connections. The last sub-topics of this lecture was “Inductive and Deductive reasoning”, as well as “Hypothetico-Deductive Methods”. However, I did not quite grasp the concept of said topics so they are still very confusing to me.

In order, to improve my appreciation and understanding of said sub-topics. I would do individual research and watch the YouTube videos listed on the PowerPoint slides composed for the lecture. It so turned out that the product of “Inductive reasoning” is that of discovering a new piece of information and “Deductive reasoning” is used to prove it. It seems to me that one type of reasoning cannot exist and or succeed without the other. As much as “Inductive reasoning” involves many investigations and or observations, “Deductive reasoning” is the aid in establishing evidence of any proposed theory or statement. Although, I’m still in the process of understanding the concept of “Inductive and Deductive reasoning”. Applying these methods to research tactics can be very effective in assignment writing. Specifically, if a student is examining the style of argumentative writing. Allowing a good means of proving one’s point based on findings of a particular topic area. Later resulting in the product of utilizing the concepts of the “Inductive and Deductive reasoning”, in future references.