Book

Theories of Scientific Method: An Introduction

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Abstract

What is it to be scientific? Is there such a thing as scientific method? And if so, how might such methods be justified? Robert Nola and Howard Sankey seek to provide answers to these fundamental questions in their exploration of the major recent theories of scientific method. Although for many scientists their understanding of method is something they just “pick up”; in the course of being trained, Nola and Sankey argue that it is possible to be explicit about what this tacit understanding of method is, rather than leave it as some unfathomable mystery. They robustly defend the idea that there is such a thing as scientific method and show how this might be legitimated. The book begins with the question of what methodology might mean and explores the notions of values, rules and principles, before investigating how methodologists have sought to show that our scientific methods are rational. Part 2 of the book sets out some principles of inductive method and examines its alternatives including abduction, IBE, and hypothetico-deductivism. Part 3 introduces probabilistic modes of reasoning, particularly Bayesianism in its various guises, and shows how it is able to give an account of many of the values and rules of method. Part 4 considers the ideas of philosophers who have proposed distinctive theories of method such as Popper, Lakatos, Kuhn and Feyerabend and Part 5 continues this theme by considering philosophers who have proposed “naturalised”; theories of method such as Quine, Laudan and Rescher. The book offers readers a comprehensive introduction to the idea of scientific method and a wide-ranging discussion of how historians of science, philosophers of science and scientists have grappled with the question over the last fifty years.
... [2][3][4]. 33 The multi-criterial solution to the demarcation problem is of limited theoretical and 34 practical utility. It merely shifts the question: from identifying a single property 35 common to all sciences to identifying many properties common to some. ...
... Nonetheless, the equivalence between scientific knowledge and information 101 compression has been dismissed as a principle of secondary importance by later 102 philosophers (e.g. Karl Popper (1902Popper ( -1994 [32]), and today clearly does not occupy the 103 foundational role that it arguably deserves [33]. 104 Philosophical resistance to equating science with information compression might 105 partially be explained by two common misconceptions. ...
... The remarkable aspect of this result is that the K function was not constructed with 549 the explicit purpose of accommodating Occam's razor, but was derived from the mutual 550 information function following a postulated equivalence of knowledge with 551 pattern-detection. The finding that Occam's razor is intrinsic to K is a striking support 552 for the notion that knowledge is information compression and that simplicity and 553 elegance are not an arbitrary aesthetic values that people (including scientists) choose 554 to impose on knowledge, as scholars have argued [33]. To the extent that it underlies 555 the encoding of patterns, simplicity is knowledge. ...
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This essay unifies key epistemological concepts in a consistent mathematical framework built on two postulates: 1-information is finite; 2-knowledge is information compression. Knowledge is expressed by a function \( K(Y;X) \) and two fundamental operations, \( \oplus, \otimes \). This \( K \) function possesses fundamental properties that are intuitively ascribed to knowledge: it embodies Occam's razor, has one optimal level of accuracy, and declines with distance in time. Empirical knowledge differs from logico-deductive knowledge solely in having measurement error and therefore a "chaos horizon". The \( K \) function characterizes knowledge as a cumulation and manipulation of patterns. It allows to quantify the amount of knowledge gained by experience and to derive conditions that favour the increase of knowledge complexity. Scientific knowledge operates exactly as ordinary knowledge, but its patterns are conditioned on a "methodology" component. Analysis of scientific progress suggests that classic Popperian falsificationism only occurs under special conditions that are rarely realised in practice, and that reproducibility failures are virtually inevitable. Scientific "softness" is simply an encoding of weaker patterns, which are simultaneously cause and consequence of higher complexity of subject matter and methodology. Bias consists in information that is concealed in ante-hoc or post-hoc methodological choices. Disciplines typically classified as pseudosciences are sciences expressing extreme bias and therefore yield \( K(Y;X) \leq 0 \). All knowledge-producing activities can be ranked in terms of a parameter \(\Xi \in (-\infty,\infty) \), measured in bits, which subsumes all quantities defined in the essay.
... Significantly Nola and Sankey (2007) explain how this "conception of realism is extended to the unobservable items postulated in science, including items for which we do not (yet) have a word" (p. 339). ...
... As a consequence positivism suffers from the false premise that what is truthful is knowable. But, as we point out above with reference to the 'electron' example in Nola and Sankey (2007), the truthseeking character of scientific research means that we may not yet know what is true. Therefore, positivism is hamstrung by being limited to saying that what is known is that which is known empirically, and that that knowledge is true knowledge. ...
... A frequently used paradigm for scientific research is the Hypothetico-Deductive paradigm (Figure 1(a)), which has been practiced by researchers for years [1,2,3]. In this paradigm, researchers first make observations which is usually a data collection process, and then raise a question. ...
... Table 1, the date is written in old style used by Kepler. 2 To obtain Gregorian style dates, we just need to add 10 days on top of Kepler's dates [6]. The "Mars' Angular Position" from Sun is the Mars' longitudes in heliocentric ecliptic coordinates computed by Kepler. ...
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The research paradigm of the Observation--Hypothesis--Prediction--Experimentation loop has been practiced by researchers for years towards scientific discovery. However, with the data explosion in both mega-scale and milli-scale scientific research, it has been sometimes very difficult to manually analyze the data and propose new hypothesis to drive the cycle for scientific discovery. In this paper, we introduce an Explainable AI-assisted paradigm for science discovery. The key is to use Explainable AI (XAI) to help derive data or model interpretations and science discoveries. We show how computational and data-intensive methodology -- together with experimental and theoretical methodology -- can be seamlessly integrated for scientific research. To demonstrate the AI-assisted science discovery process, and to pay our respect to some of the greatest minds in human history, we show how Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation can be rediscovered by (explainable) AI based on Tycho Brahe's astronomical observation data, whose works were leading the scientific revolution in the 16-17th century. This work also highlights the importance of Explainable AI (as compared to black-box AI) in science discovery to help humans prevent or better prepare for the possible technological singularity which may happen in the future.
... Tartışmalı bir başka konu ise nitel araştırmalarda kuramın yeridir. Aslında bir etkinliğin "bilimselliği" ve bilimsellikte hipotezin-kuramın yeri; hipotez-gözlem ilişkisi; "gözlem veya sınama" düzenekleri sonucunda ulaşılan verilerden hiç aksamayan sonuçlara bağlı olarak "yasa" mı çıkarılacağı; yoksa düzenliliklerdeki küçük aksamaları yasanın reddi yahut belli bir ihtimalle gerçekleşmesi biçiminde mi yorumlanacağı; veyahut da sıklıkla mı yoksa istisnai olarak gerçekleşen durumların mı bilimsel araştırmaya konu edileceği türünden sorular bilim felsefesi ve yöntembilimin çetrefilli konularındandır (Keat ve Urry, 2001;Lakatos, 1989;Nola ve Sankey, 2007;Rosenberg, 2014). Burada ayrıntılara girme olanağı yoktur. ...
... Ne pozitivizm bir tanedir, ne de antipozitivizm/yorumlamacılık. Bunların "açıklama", "görgüllük", "gözlem" "gerçeklik", "bilimsellik" gibi temel kavramlarda ne denli görüş ayrılıkları olduğuna dair güçlü bir yazın olduğunu (Keat ve Urry, 2001;Coşkun, 2017, Freund, 1991Craib, 1984;Nola ve Sankey, 2007) söylemek yeterlidir. Bu tartışmalara bağlı olarak çalışma şu sorulara cevap aramaktadır: a) Türkçe nitel çalışmalarda yerleşik bir "nitel" terminoloji var mıdır? ...
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Giriş Bilim felsefesi üzerinden yürütülen tartışmalar bilimsel bilginin üretilmesinde iki ana akımdan söz ederler: Metodolojik düzeyde nomotetik ve idiografik ayrımına denk gelen bu iki akımdan ilki doğa olaylarında olduğu gibi toplumsal olgularda da düzen arayışını ve genel geçer yasa üretme çabasını önceleyen pozitivist paradigmadır. İkincisi ise, her olgunun bağlamına ve kendine özgü olacağı ve olguya ilişkin anlayışı zenginleştirecek betimlemeler ve analitik genellemeler yoluyla anlamlandırmayı önceleyen, kimilerine göre yorumlamacı esasta ise anti-pozitivist paradigmadır. İkinci akım son yıllara kadar birincinin gölgesinde ve bilimsel topluluklarca meşruiyeti sorgulanır biçimde kalmıştır. Bunun nedenlerinin başında "nitel çalışmaların bilimselliğini temin etmede kullanabileceği araçların olmadığı iddiası gelmektedir. Türkiye'de ise bilim felsefesi, yöntembilim ve yöntem kaygısı uzun bir geçmişe sahip değildir. 1930'lardan günümüze arada bir sosyal bilimlerin farklı alanlarında yazılmış "araştırma yöntemleri" kitapları amaç, içerik ve kapsam bakımından oldukça çeşitlilik gösterir. Bunlar arasında "kaynak gösterme", "grafik çizme" gibi "teknik" konulara odaklananlar olduğu gibi daha kapsamlı bir biçimde bir araştırmanın arkasındaki felsefi dayanaklardan başlayarak araştırmanın konusunun belirlenmesi, tasarlanması ve sonuçlandırılıp raporlandırılmasına kadar bütün aşamaları kapsayan eserlere de vardır. Sayıları özellikle 1970'lerden itibaren artış göstermeye başlayan bu eserlerin daha çok "nicel" araştırmayı önceledikleri görülmektedir. Bu aslında, uluslararası eğilimin bir yansımasıydı. 1990'lardan itibaren Batı'da giderek artan "yorumlamacı araştırma mantığının" sahaya aktarılışı anlamındaki "nitel çalışmalar" giderek artan oranda kabul görmeye ve ders kitaplarının konusu olmaya başladı. Bu dönemde internet üzerinden yalnızca nicel değil, devasa nitel veri setlerine ulaşma imkânı, nitel araştırmaları giderek benimsenir ve meşru duruma getirdi. Yanı sıra, nitel yöntem hakkında yazılan ders kitaplarının sayıları da armaya başladı. Ancak nitel çalışmalardaki niceliksel artış, nitelik sorununu da gün yüzüne çıkardı ve bunların "bilimselliği" sorgulanmaya başlandı. Çünkü nitel araştırma çoğunlukla "mülakat" yapmak, bazen de içerik analizi" yahut "örnek olay" ve "fokus grup" çalışması gibi bilimsel etkinliğin değişik süreç ve durumlarına denk gelen anlamlarda kullanılmaya başlandı. Ortada bunca karmaşa var iken, yazılan kimi niteliksiz "nitel araştırma" kitapları durumu daha da kötüleştirdi. Nitel araştırma bir anlamda "teknikler" düzeyine indirgendi ve "yöntemsizlikle" eş anlamda kullanılmaya başlandı. Bu gelişmeler sonucunda nitel araştırmaların bilimselliği ve niteliği sorunu üzerinde hala durulması gerekmektedir. Çalışma bu sorunlardan bazılarını ele alarak alandaki duyarlılığın artmasına katkıda bulunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada öncelikle nitel araştırmanın neliği üzerine kısa bir tartışma yapılacaktır. Ardından Türk nitel yazınına ilişkin kısa ve eleştirel bir yazın incelemesi yapılacaktır. Sonrasında yöntem, veri ve çözümlemeye ilişkin bilgiler verilecek ve nihayet, bulgular ışığında tartışmalar yapılacaktır.
... 10 In cases like the oracle, in which the system generates reliably good predictions, most of us would wonder why the oracle works so well. Indeed, it is often the case, in the history of science that natural regularities and correlations become the target of explanation (Nola and Sankey 2014). Thus, for the scientifically-minded, the mysterious predictive power of the oracle would become the explanandum. ...
... Scientists are held to a higher epistemic standard than ordinary epistemic agents (Nola and Sankey 2014). This is one of the reasons why they can serve the role of providing expert testimony. ...
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What does it mean to trust the results of a computer simulation? This paper argues that trust in simulations should be grounded in empirical evidence, good engineering practice, and established theoretical principles. Without these constraints, computer simulation risks becoming little more than speculation. We argue against two prominent positions in the epistemology of computer simulation and defend a conservative view that emphasizes the difference between the norms governing scientific investigation and those governing ordinary epistemic practices.
... Falta de espacio impide discutir la existencia de un método científico 'único, fijo y establecido.' (Ver al respecto: Nola and Irzik (2003); Nola and Sankey (2007); Suchting (1995)). Bricmont (2017)p.228 ...
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"...en todos estos escritores apofáticos que hacen época, la ignorancia ha sido cultivada a conciencia, como si fuese el momento más fértil de la percepción auténtica de la realidad, y sobre sus bases más profundas." Franke (2015)p.27. Resumen: Una revisión bibliográfica muestra que, al momento de su publicación, los postulados de Najmanovich afirmando que la objetividad es un mito normativo del Iluminismo, impuesto a través de la educación, ya habían sido refutados repetidamente, e incluso parodiados, en la literatura. Su "Perspectivismo Lúcido" produce una historiografía basada en "fabulaciones" personales que eluden todo lo que las contradice. Al rechazar los referentes objetivos para aceptar la existencia de "múltiples mundos en el mundo," su anti-intelectualismo apofático supuestamente restablecería la creatividad comunitaria a través de una "Ética del Encuentro," liberando a la humanidad de la "Ética del Control Disciplinario" del Iluminismo. Contra esas afirmaciones, se argumenta que tal postura subjetivista extrema implica un solipsismo anárquico y autocontradictorio, intelectual y políticamente subyugante. Contra el pragmatismo estético-comunitario de Najmanovich, se insiste en la necesidad histórica de renovar el proyecto del Iluminismo poniendo a la ética y la estética en par con los referentes objetivos y materiales, y así posibilitar la unidad social dentro de las diferencias, sobre una base racional y realista. Abstract: A bibliographical review shows that at the time of their publication Najmanovich's postulates asserting that objectivity is 'a normative myth of the Enlightenment, imposed through education,' had already repeatedly been refuted, and even parodied, in the literature. Najmanovich's "Lucid Perspectivism" builds a historiography based on "fabulations" that avoid everything that contradicts them. By rejecting the objective referents to allow for the existence of "multiple worlds in the world," this apophatic anti-intellectualism would supposedly re-establish the community's creativity through an "Ethics of Encounter," freeing humanity from the Enlightenment's normatismo and its "Ethics of Disciplinary Control." Against those assertions, it is argued that such extreme subjectivist stance implies an anarchic, self-contradictory, intellectual and politically subordinating solipsism. Against Najmanovich's community’s pragmatism, the historical need to renew the Enlightenment project is insisted on, putting both, ethics and aestehtics, on a par with objective and material referents, and thus enabling social unity within differences, on a rational and realistic basis.
... Research approach is a plan and procedure which include the detailed method of data collection, analysis, and interpretation and applied to achieve the research objectives (Nola & Sankey, 2010). In this study use the deductive approach and use process to arrive at a rational conclusion regarding the impact of 3PL service on the user satisfaction level in Apparel Manufacturing Company in Sri Lanka to the generalization of known fact. ...
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Abstract: The organizations have to compete with many other organizations in the same industry. As a result, they must identify the requirements of the internal and external environments, as well as their own, in order to produce the best results.Strategic planning is an essential process for all organizations. As we all know, what most of the people in Sri Lanka believe is that Sri Lankan public universities have failed to achieve their targets well. The strategic planning aspect of Sri Lankan public universities is poor and they have failed to achieve the strategic objectives well. This is highlighted as an important requirement of the strategic plan for public sector universities that can make radical changes. But most public universities failed to come up with the most suitable strategic plan for them, which was investigated in this study. The researcher collected the information from multiple sources, in-depth desk research, and in-depth interviewresearch to identify the barriers to strategic planning in public sector universities. This study used a purposive sampling method to collect data and conducted seven key in-depth interviews with university system strategic directors and registrars. The researchers identified six new themes as barriers in the strategic planning process. Lack of awareness in the strategic planning process, digital adoption, solidarity, transformation in management skills, impact on the external environment, and public perception via social media and media. Keywords: Barriers, Strategic Planning, Universities, Strategy, Multi-sources
... On the basis of what can logical principles be adjudicated, if not by assuming a base logic on which they may be compared? Similarly, with respect to method, it would appear that there must be some stable principles guiding the choice of theory on the basis of observation-which the above quote seems to concede (Nola and Sankey 2014). ...
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This essay offers a conception of logic by which logic may be considered to be exceptional among the sciences on the backdrop of a naturalistic outlook. The conception of logic focused on emphasises the traditional role of logic as a methodology for the sciences, which distinguishes it from other sciences that are not methodological. On the proposed conception, the methodological aims of logic drive its definitions and principles, rather than the description of scientific phenomena. The notion of a methodological discipline is explained as a relation between disciplines or practices. Logic serves as a methodological discipline with respect to any theoretical practice, and this generality, as well as logic’s reflexive nature, distinguish it from other methodological disciplines. Finally, the evolution of model theory is taken as a case study, with a focus on its methodological role. Following recent work by John Baldwin and Juliette Kennedy, we look at model theory from its inception in the mid-twentieth century as a foundational endeavour until developments at the end of the century, where the classification of theories has taken centre-stage.
... Inductive research involves moving from specific observations towards broad generalizations that influence the formation of concepts and theories (Locke, 2007). Compared to the deductive reasoning that moves from generalizations to the specific insights when forming a theory (Locke, 2007;Nola and Sankey, 2007). The inductive research approach involves three stages: making an observation, identifying a pattern from those observations, and developing a theory. ...
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The systems that we are designing are becoming increasingly more complex and interconnected, and without proper awareness and holistic understanding of how our designs integrate into the context of the broader designed ecosystem, our attempts to solve these problems may run the risk of created additional unintended consequences. There is a need for the development of new approaches, to aid in tackling complexity while addressing the risk of creating unintended consequences. This study aims to investigate how product and service designers, in agency settings, can integrate aspects of systems thinking into their design process, and understanding its effect on addressing unintended consequences. In this context, unintended consequences are defined as "outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action" (Merton, 1936). To test the hypothesis that" Systems Thinking," while being paired with the human- centered "Design Thinking" approach, will enable a human-centered approach to understand interconnected systems and assist in addressing unintended consequences, the approach of Research through Design is used. Design Thinkers, System Thinkers, and Design Leaders, spanning six different countries, were all interviewed, and their responses were thematically grouped and synthesized. The results identified gaps in the current Design Thinking process and areas were Systems Thinking could add value. Furthermore, a process model and interactive game were suggested as proposed intervention, and the paper illustrates how the prototypes were developed, tested, and iterated upon. Next steps in the development of these proposed interventions are expressed. Lastly, recommendations were made for further academic exploration in this field.
... 589 The remarkable aspect of this result is that the K function was not constructed with 590 the explicit purpose of accommodating Ockham's razor, but was derived from the 591 mutual information function following a postulated equivalence of knowledge with 592 pattern-detection (see Supplementary information section 5.1). The finding that 593 Ockham's razor is intrinsic to K is a compelling support for the notion that knowledge 594 is information compression and that simplicity and elegance are not arbitrary aesthetic 595 values that people (including scientists) choose to impose on knowledge, contrary to 596 what some scholars have argued [37]. To the extent that it underlies the encoding of 597 patterns, simplicity is knowledge. ...
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This essay proposes mathematical answers to meta-scientific questions including "how much knowledge is produced by research?", "how rapidly is a field making progress?", "what is the expected reproducibility of a result?", "what do we mean by soft science?", "what demarcates a pseudoscience?", and many others. From two simple postulates - 1) information is finite; 2) knowledge is information compression - we derive a function \(K(y;x\tau)=\frac{T(y)-T(y|x \tau)}{(T(y)+T(x)+T(\tau)}\), in which the total information \(T()\) contained in an explanandum \(y\) is lossless or lossy compressed via an explanans composed of an information input \(x\) and a "theory" component \(\tau\). The latter is a factor that conditions the relationship between \(y\) and \(x\), with an information "cost" equivalent to the description length of the relationship itself. This function is proposed as a simple and universal tool to understand and analyse knowledge dynamics, scientific or otherwise. Soft sciences are shown to be simply fields that yield relatively low K values. Bias turns out to be information that is concealed in methodological choices, thereby reducing K. Disciplines typically classified as pseudosciences are suggested to be sciences that suffer from extreme bias: their informational input is greater than their output, yielding \(K(y;x\tau) < 0\). The essay derives numerous general results, some of which may be counter-intuitive. For example, it suggests that reproducibility failures are inevitable, and that the value of publishing negative results may vary across fields and within a field over time. Therefore, there may be conditions in which the costs of reproducible research practices such as publishing negative results and sharing data may outweigh the benefits. The theory makes several testable predictions concerning science and cognition in general, and it may have numerous applications that future research could develop, test and implement to foster progress on all frontiers of knowledge.
... After that, the steps of students to discuss with different groups also increase their experience in fostering self-confidence in learning mathematics. It is in line with the opinion of [22] in conveying the knowledge that exists in a person. The students can express their knowledge as an expression of self-confidence in learning. ...
... Penggunaan filsafat dalam mengkaji agregat psikis tersebut memungkinkan untuk melihat gejala secara utuh dan menyeluruh, artinya tidak berhenti pada dimensi-dimensi tertentu yang bisa terukur, melainkan menyentuh aspek yang sulit diukur namun ada, berfokus pada proses berpikir untuk menemukan kebijaksanaan melalui penemuan kebenaran, yang memiliki sifat mengkaji obyek secara menyeluruh, berusaha menemukan hakekat atau esensi terdalam dari suatu obyek, serta kehati-hatian dalam menemukan kebenaran. Nola menyebutnya sebagai metode untuk "menemukan" ilmu (Nola & Sankey, 2007), dan menempatkan kajian konseptual atau "kegiatan berteori" ini sebagai memenuhi nilai internal atau nilai intrinsik dari ilmu.. Pada makalah ini, yang dikajiadalah aspek pengalaman dan penghayatan spiritual dari manusia, yang dalam psikologi dikonseptualisasi sebagai self, dengan perspektif religiusitas Islam sebagai karakterisasi dari self-nya, yang membuatnya sesuai untuk disebut sebagai religious self. ...
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Akhlaqul karimah in general is a temperament that contains elements of goodness. The characteristics consistent with morals, ethics, morality, dignity, and kindness in accordance with reference to the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. From psychologycal perspective, "self" is the aggregate related. Defined as an awareness of one's own unique existence, self is the crucial factor of regulatory and control functions over the thoughts, feelings, motives, and behavior. Accordingly, the proposed concept "religious self" can be defined as an awareness of the one's own existence in relation to God,in which the awareness of the relationship will be the critical factor that regulate and control the thoughts, feelings, motives, and behavior. Religious self is being argued as having four dimensions:Godness belief, awareness of God-self connectednes, acceptance of God's willpowertoward them, and motif of obedience to God's order. In term of akhlaqul karimah, each dimension of religious self is analogous to the concept of iman (faith), ikhsan (feel of being observed by the Divine), tawakal (resignation), and taqwa (piety), which are features indicate the quality of akhlaqul karimah. Critical review of concepts in common psychology ie religiosity, spirituality, personality, and self, offers new conceptualisation of akhlaqul karimah by the way of psychology. ABSTRAK Akhlaqul karimah atau budi pekerti luhur secara umum adalah suatu perangai yang mengandung unsur-unsur kebaikan dengan ciri yang sejalan dengan moral, etika, kesusilaan, kemuliaan, dan kebaikan sesuai dengan referensi Al-Quran dan Sunnah Rasulullah SAW. Dalam perspektif psikologi, agregat yang dilekati akhlaqul karimahsalah satunya adalah yang dikonseptualisasi sebagai "self". Dengan definisi self yaitu sekumpulan kesadaran akan eksistensi unik seseorang, yang akan menjadi faktor penentu fungsi regulasi dan fungsi kontrol individu, maka religious self (diri religius) dapat didefinisikan sebagai sekumpulan kesadaran akan eksistensi unik seseorang dalam keterhubungannya dengan Tuhan. Kesadaran keterhubungan tersebut akan menjadi faktor penentu fungsi regulasi dan fungsi kontrol atas pikiran, perasaan, motif, dan perilakunya. Berangkat dari definisi self, diajukan konsep diri religius dengan dimensi-dimensi meliputi keyakinan kebertuhanan, kesadaran keterhubungan dengan Tuhan, penerimaan akan kehendak Tuhan pada diri, dan motivasi kepatuhan pada Tuhan. Dalam konteks akhlaqul karimah, maka secara berurutan masing-masing dimensi tersebut analog dengan konsep iman, ikhsan, tawakkal, dan taqwa, yaitu fitur-fitur penciri akhlaqul karimah. Telaah sistematis dilakukan terhadap sejumlah konsep dalam ruang keilmuan psikologi yaitu religiusitas, spiritualitas, kepribadian, dan self. Tujuan penyusun mengkonstruksi konsep diri religius adalah untuk mengkonseptualisasiakhlaqul karimah dengan perspektif psikologi yang relatif lebih dipahami secara universal dalam ruang keilmuan psikologi. Kata Kunci: Diri Religius, Akhlaqul Karimah, Religiusitas PENDAHULUAN Diri religius adalah konsep yang konstruksinya berpijak pada konsep dan teori self, religiusitas, dan spiritualitas. Sebagai sebuah konstruk yang baru dikonstruksi, meskipun dibangun di atas tiga bangunan
... [5,105]). Nonetheless, the equivalence between scientific knowledge and information compression has been presented as a principle of secondary importance by later philosophers (including for example Popper [41]), and today does not appear to occupy the foundational role that it arguably deserves [106]. ...
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This article proposes quantitative answers to meta-scientific questions including 'how much knowledge is attained by a research field?', 'how rapidly is a field making progress?', 'what is the expected reproducibility of a result?', 'how much knowledge is lost from scientific bias and misconduct?', 'what do we mean by soft science?', and 'what demarcates a pseudoscience?'. Knowledge is suggested to be a system-specific property measured by K, a quantity determined by how much of the information contained in an explanandum is compressed by an explanans, which is composed of an information 'input' and a 'theory/methodology' conditioning factor. This approach is justified on three grounds: (i) K is derived from postulating that information is finite and knowledge is information compression; (ii) K is compatible and convertible to ordinary measures of effect size and algorithmic complexity; (iii) K is physically interpretable as a measure of entropic efficiency. Moreover, the K function has useful properties that support its potential as a measure of knowledge. Examples given to illustrate the possible uses of K include: the knowledge value of proving Fermat's last theorem; the accuracy of measurements of the mass of the electron; the half life of predictions of solar eclipses; the usefulness of evolutionary models of reproductive skew; the significance of gender differences in personality; the sources of irreproducibility in psychology; the impact of scientific misconduct and questionable research practices; the knowledge value of astrology. Furthermore, measures derived from K may complement ordinary meta-analysis and may give rise to a universal classification of sciences and pseudosciences. Simple and memorable mathematical formulae that summarize the theory's key results may find practical uses in meta-research, philosophy and research policy.
... Setelah itu, adanya langkah siswa untuk berdiskusi ke kelompok yang berbeda pun menambah pengalaman siswa dalam memupuk rasa percaya diri dalam belajar matematika. Hal ini sependapat dengan pendapat Nola & Sankey (2010) dalam menyampaikan pengetahuan yang ada pada diri seseorang, yaitu kemampuan siswa dalam mengungkapkan pengetahuan yang dimiliki adalah salah satu bentuk aplikasi kemampuan percaya diri dalam belajar. ...
... Many factors have contributed to this, including the adoption of expert testimony in courts (Lawson, 1900;Imwinkelried, 1993;Freckelton, 1995;Lord Woolf, 1996), and the introduction of Government Chief and Departmental Chief Scientific Advisers (Parker, 2016). Scientists assume the role of impartial observer, assumed to be relatively free from bias and guided by the scientific method's impartiality (Walton, 1997;Nola & Sankey, 2014). Disciplinary experts are often called on to provide advice across a range of economic challenges, environmental problems and biological risks (Carrier, 2004). ...
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Sustainable development is widely recognized as an existential challenge. To address it, humanity needs to change its ways. However, people seem slow to act, not always understanding and often denying environmental imperatives, creating substantial social and psychological barriers. Social inertia and denial have been allegedly amplified by a public discourse increasingly distrustful of science. But is this discourse a rejection of science or an erosion of trust in how science is applied? The paper examines the main differences between environmental science and technology, reviews how the wider science-technology convergence has affected them and evaluates potential implications for sustainability challenges. We question whether the “convergence” between environmental science and technology, could be behind the growing public dissatisfaction and distrust of environmental science and policies. Although environmental science plays a role in enabling understanding and communicating complexity, technology requires political, social and economic skills, beyond conventional disciplinary expertise. To avoid putting academic freedom at risk, environmental technologists, a new breed of professionals, should have a clear understanding of scientific capacity and uncertainty and be able to engage with stakeholders, policy makers and the public to design integrated, interdisciplinary and holistic solutions, and also better define the many environmental problems we face.
... Paradigma yang mendasari penelitian ini adalah constructivism (Nola & Sankey, 2007), yaitu bahwa realitas DR didasarkan pada konstruksi yang dibangun oleh individu-individu pemeluk agamanya. Jadi frame of reference-nya adalah diri individu, dengan asumsi bahwa individu menginternalisasi dan atau mengalami secara personal keterhubungan dengan Tuhan, sehingga citra Tuhan pada diri individu (perceived Godnessity), hanya bisa dilihat melalui perspektif subyektif individu, bukan melalui pengukuran obyektif. ...
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The study aims to explore the concept of Religious Self (Diri Religius/DR). Sequential exploratory mixed methods was applied, which qualitative study precedes the quantitative. Fifteen participants involved in phenomenological based semi structured interviews that were subjected to thematic analysis. A total of 739 subjects filled out questionnaires in quantitative studies located in Bandung, Denpasar, Yogyakarta, Cimahi, Surabaya, Garut, and Depok. The first study resulted in four dimensions of DR. The second study shows that the three-dimensional model of DR (individual’s view of God's involvement in the exixtences, positive perspective on God's involvement in life events, and positive behaviors accompanied by positive emotions) significantly fit according to empirical data. DR proved to be a concept that can distinguish God-oriented individuals (theistic) to those who are not (non-theistic). Key words : religious self, religiosity, spirituality
... There are never sufficient grounds to claim that a hypothesis has been proven conclusively. But passing a certain number of tests successfully induces researcher communities to regard a given hypothesis as sufficiently proven to consider it an element of scientific knowledge (Nola and Sankey, 2007). ...
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Purpose: The article discusses selected methodological issues of natural and social sciences with particular consideration of behavioural economics to highlight the significance of experimental research. Design approach: The order of the issues covered is as follows: (a) science as a product of a research community, (b) basic cognitive activities in science, (c) a short description of social sciences, (d) a discussion on the methods applied in behavioural economics. Findings: The article offers a description of research procedure, its objectives and the methods applied therein; it has been stressed that testing theories and hypotheses involves exposing them to falsification; it has been emphasised that research conducted within the framework of social sciences is more difficult than in the case of natural sciences because of the large number of independent variables and the possible interaction between the researcher and research participants. Practical implications: The content presented in the article highlights the value of scientific findings as opposed to common-sense knowledge adopted with the disregard of the principles of proper methodology. Value: The authors believe that the emergence of behavioural economics was an attempt to overcome certain deficiencies in the methodology of classical economics by means of experimental research.
... Breaking this dialog into its fundamental elements, it can be boiled down to a few steps: consume, consider and extend [8]. Each of the primitive elements of the scientific method [9] -observe, hypothesize, gather data, test, refine and conclude -can also be mapped to one of these fundamental steps. If we expand the process beyond one individual, towards communities establishing scientific theories, trust in parallel work cannot be established without proper validation and testing; therefore, in the scientific scholarly workflow we need to insert a fourth step -"reproduce" before "extend." ...
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EDITOR'S SUMMARY Scholarly research is at the forefront of innovation, especially with a breadth of new technologies that can enhance the research process. However, in a race for scholars to produce more and more new findings, documentation practices and reproduction of results may be neglected. Lack of validation through reproduction can lead to a general distrust of scholarly research and experiments, but a more generous approach to information sharing could be the answer to this issue. Scholars have connected socially for centuries to share their ideas, and this practice has led to some truly innovative ideas that have shaped our world today. With willing participants sharing their ideas and their research methods, new findings can be reproduced and validated, creating a stronger and more trustworthy community of scholars.
... Determining that protocols such as cladogram comparisons and character mapping are problematic requires that we first acknowledge the intent of reasoning in biological systematics. The overarching goal of scientific inquiry is to acquire causal understanding of the phenomena we observe/describe, which also affords opportunities for predictions into the future (Hempel, 1965;Hanson, 1958;Rescher, 1970;Popper, 1983Popper, , 1992Salmon, 1984a;Van Fraassen, 1990;Strahler, 1992;Mahner and Bunge, 1997;Hausman, 1998;Thagard, 2004;Nola and Sankey, 2007;de Regt et al., 2009;Hoyningen-Huene, 2013). As a field of science, we should expect the objective of systematics to be consistent with that of other fields. ...
... 589 The remarkable aspect of this result is that the K function was not constructed with 590 the explicit purpose of accommodating Ockham's razor, but was derived from the 591 mutual information function following a postulated equivalence of knowledge with 592 pattern-detection (see Supplementary information section 5.1). The finding that 593 Ockham's razor is intrinsic to K is a compelling support for the notion that knowledge 594 is information compression and that simplicity and elegance are not arbitrary aesthetic 595 values that people (including scientists) choose to impose on knowledge, contrary to 596 what some scholars have argued [37]. To the extent that it underlies the encoding of 597 patterns, simplicity is knowledge. ...
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Acknowledgements First of all, we would like to express our sincere thanks to DW Akademie for this initiative. The importance of this study lies in its main research questions: What factors facilitate or inhibit aspiring Bangladeshi journalists to prepare for and join the profession and what factors enable or restrict them from acquiring the necessary skill sets (particularly in educational institutions and media outlets) to succeed in journalism. The insights gathered from this will aid both the industry and academia to help the profession of journalism progress to a new level.
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Hypotheses and theories are essential constituents of the scientific method. Many vaccinologists are unaware that the problems they try to solve are mostly inverse problems that consist in imagining what could bring about a desired outcome. An inverse problem starts with the result and tries to guess what are the multiple causes that could have produced it. Compared to the usual direct scientific problems that start with the causes and derive or calculate the results using deductive reasoning and known mechanisms, solving an inverse problem uses a less reliable inductive approach and requires the development of a theoretical model that may have different solutions or none at all. Unsuccessful attempts to solve inverse problems in HIV vaccinology by reductionist methods, systems biology and structure-based reverse vaccinology are described. The popular strategy known as rational vaccine design is unable to solve the multiple inverse problems faced by HIV vaccine developers. The term “rational” is derived from “rational drug design” which uses the 3D structure of a biological target for designing molecules that will selectively bind to it and inhibit its biological activity. In vaccine design, however, the word “rational” simply means that the investigator is concentrating on parts of the system for which molecular information is available. The economist and Nobel laureate Herbert Simon introduced the concept of “bounded rationality” to explain why the complexity of the world economic system makes it impossible, for instance, to predict an event like the financial crash of 2007–2008. Humans always operate under unavoidable constraints such as insufficient information, a limited capacity to process huge amounts of data and a limited amount of time available to reach a decision. Such limitations always prevent us from achieving the complete understanding and optimization of a complex system that would be needed to achieve a truly rational design process. This is why the complexity of the human immune system prevents us from rationally designing an HIV vaccine by solving inverse problems.
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