Question 1

Describe the Newtonian style of modern science and explain how it developed into positivism. Be sure to discuss the issues related to description, prediction, control, and explanation.

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Question 2

Summarize Hempel and Oppenheim's covering-law model of scientific explanation and its key features. What is the Iron Law of Explanation? Briefly describe some criticisms of the Hempel and Oppenheim covering-law model of scientific explanation.

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Question 3

What is the casual approach and how does it contrast with the positivist approach to science?

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Question 4

Summarize the key differences between positivism, the nomological approach (e.g. Hempel-Oppenheim model) and the casual approach.

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Question 5

Contrast realist and anti-realist views of science. Discuss why the realism vs. anti-realism debate is at the heart of the nomological versus causal debate?

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Question 6

Define and compare syntactic, semantic, and naturalistic conceptions of theories.

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Question 7

Describe the "layer-cake" picture of science advanced by the positivists.

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Question 8

In terms of the nature of scientific change, contrast the traditional rational view of scientific change with a naturalistic approach to science.

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Question 9

Summarize Sir Karl Popper's approach to scientific change. Describe Popper's demarcation criterion and its usefulness. How does Popper's theory differ from Kuhn's theory of science?

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Question 10

Summarize Historian Thomas Kuhn's approach to science and discuss a controversial aspect of his theory.

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Question 11

Describe the dimension of internalism-externalism in the history of science and discuss its importance.

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Question 12

Discuss two possible outcomes when two theories clash over their ability to explain the same phenomena. Why are these two outcomes important for psychology?

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Question 13

Like science, people in everyday life need and use knowledge of the world. Yet science has a "different worldview". Explain what the philosopher Thomas Nagel's meant by the idea of "Science as the view from nowhere".

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Question 14

Explain the tension between reason and cause in explaining human action and discuss this tension in the history of science.

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Question 15

Summarize the historical dispute between those who see "Great Men as the makers of history" and those who adopt the perspective of a "Zeitgeist" to history.

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Question 16

Contrast the "Old" and "New" approaches to the history of science.

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Question 17

Discuss the question of whether the mind was discovered, invented or constructed. Why is this question important for psychology?

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Question 18

Compare and contrast the Buddhist and Western conceptions of the mind and its importance.

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Quiz 1: Introduction