The Scientific Attitude

Author: Lee McIntyre
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262039834
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
An argument that what makes science distinctive is its emphasis on evidence and scientists' willingness to change theories on the basis of new evidence. Attacks on science have become commonplace. Claims that climate change isn't settled science, that evolution is “only a theory,” and that scientists are conspiring to keep the truth about vaccines from the public are staples of some politicians' rhetorical repertoire. Defenders of science often point to its discoveries (penicillin! relativity!) without explaining exactly why scientific claims are superior. In this book, Lee McIntyre argues that what distinguishes science from its rivals is what he calls “the scientific attitude”—caring about evidence and being willing to change theories on the basis of new evidence. The history of science is littered with theories that were scientific but turned out to be wrong; the scientific attitude reveals why even a failed theory can help us to understand what is special about science. McIntyre offers examples that illustrate both scientific success (a reduction in childbed fever in the nineteenth century) and failure (the flawed “discovery” of cold fusion in the twentieth century). He describes the transformation of medicine from a practice based largely on hunches into a science based on evidence; considers scientific fraud; examines the positions of ideology-driven denialists, pseudoscientists, and “skeptics” who reject scientific findings; and argues that social science, no less than natural science, should embrace the scientific attitude. McIntyre argues that the scientific attitude—the grounding of science in evidence—offers a uniquely powerful tool in the defense of science.

The Scientific Attitude

Author: C. H. Waddington
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317351940
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Book Description
First published in 1941 (this edition in 1968), this book explores the relationship between science, culture, and society- focusing on human beings, and human communities. Here, C. H. Waddington uses the concept of science to mean more than factual information about genes and haemoglobin and his subject is the effect of scientific ways of speaking on the ways in which people look at the world around them. The work discusses biological assumptions made by various communities, particularly fascist movements, on human beings and compares them with the scientific attitude. The Nazis for instance spoke about ‘racial purity’ and ‘German blood’ but these expressions, whilst arousing emotion, had, and have, no rational meaning- they are inaccurate and tell us nothing of human genetics. As well as presenting a scientific argument, being published initially in 1941, this book also acts as a historical document, conveying some of the feeling of living through WWII. It highlights the fact that science and scientific assumptions have very wide implications for the whole conduct of life.

Attitude Research in Science Education

Author: Dr. Issa M. Saleh
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1617353264
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Book Description
The research into how students’ attitudes affect their learning of science related subjects has been one of the core areas of interest by science educators. The development in science education records various attempts in measuring attitudes and determining the correlations between behavior, achievements, career aspirations, gender identity and cultural inclination. Some researchers noted that attitudes can be learned and teachers can encourage students to like science subjects through persuasion. But some view that attitude is situated in context and has much to do with upbringing and environment. The critical role of attitude is well recognized in advancing science education, in particular designing curriculum and choosing powerful pedagogies and nurturing students. Since Noll’s (1935) seminal work on measuring the scientific attitudes, a steady stream of research papers describing the development and validation of scales have appeared in scholarly publications. Despite these efforts, the progress in this area has been stagnated by limited understanding of the conception of attitude, dimensionality and inability to determine the multitude of variables that made up such concept. This book makes an attempt to take stock and critically examine classical views on science attitudes and explore contemporary attempts in measuring science-related attitudes. The chapters in this book are a reflection of researchers who work tirelessly in promoting science education and highlight the current trends and future scenarios in attitude measurement.

The Psychology of Attitudes and Attitude Change

Author: Gregory R. Maio
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 141292975X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Written by two world-leading academics in the field of attitudes research, is a brand new textbook that gets to the very heart of this fascinating and far-reaching field. Greg Maio and Geoffrey Haddock describe how scientific methods have been used to better understand attitudes and how they change. With the aid of a few helpful metaphors, the text provides readers with a grasp of the fundamental concepts for understanding attitudes and an appreciation of the scientific challenges that lay ahead.

The Scientific Attitude

Author: Frederick Grinnell
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 9780898620184
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Book Description
THE SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE presents a systematic account of the cognitive and social features of science. Written by an experimental biologist actively engaged in research, the work is unique in its attempt to understand science in terms of day-to-day practice. The book goes beyond the traditional description of science that focuses on method and logic to characterize the scientific attitude as a way of looking at the world. Professor Grinnell uses examples from biomedical research to describe science at three interdependent levels. At the first level, the individual scientist makes observations, formulates hypotheses, and does experiments. The scientist's thought style determines what can be seen and what it will appear to mean. At the second level, scientists participate in social institutions such as graduate programs, research groups, journal editorial boards, and grant review panels. Each of these institutions tries to promote its own distinctive collective thought style. Finally, at the third level, scientists participate in the world of everyday life beyond science, a world that continuously influences and is influenced by the activities and discoveries of science.

Scientific Attitude and Cognitive Styles

Author: D.N. Dani
Publisher: Northern Book Centre
ISBN: 9788185119502
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Book Description
The major goals of teaching in general, and science teaching, in particular, are to develop a scientific attitude among the pupils and to make them analytical pattern in thinking. Scientific Attitude and Cognitive Styles discusses the concepts, constructs tools and procedures for the measurement of these two variables. Based on an extensive research on school going adolescents, this book first gives a comprehensive survey of the work done in the past and then elucidated the domain wise components of the scientific attitude, obtained through factor analysis of scientific attitude scores. Then it deals with the effect of major educational, psychological and sociological factors on cognitive styles and scientific attitude and the inter-relationship between these two variables. It first describes the extent to which the scientific attitude and the field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles exist in our school going adolescents. At the end, it discuses the implications of the findings for researchers, teachers and teacher-educators. The book will be useful for post-graduate students, researchers and teachers working in the fields of education, psychology, and sociology.

Scientific Attitude

Author: D.Bhaskara Rao
Publisher: Discovery Publishing House
ISBN: 9788171413812
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
Science educators have included the development of scientific attitude among the general aims of science education since the beginning of the present century. To many science educators, a man with scientific attitude looks for the natural causes of events, is open-minded towards the work and opinion of others and towards information related to his problem, forms opinion and conclusions on adequate evidence, evaluates techniques and procedures used and information obtained, and is curious concerning the things he observes. Contents: Introduction, Related Literature, Research Design, Data Analysis, Summary, Conclusions and Discussion.

Educational Aspirations And Scientific Attitudes

Author: Kalluri Durga Rani
Publisher: Discovery Publishing House
ISBN: 9788171415557
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
Contents: Educational Aspirations and Scientific Attitudes: The Problem and Its Significance, Related Research, Research Procedure, Analysis of Data, Conclusions, Discussions and Suggestions.

How to Talk to a Science Denier

Author: Lee McIntyre
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262366711
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
Can we change the minds of science deniers? Encounters with flat earthers, anti-vaxxers, coronavirus truthers, and others. "Climate change is a hoax--and so is coronavirus." "Vaccines are bad for you." These days, many of our fellow citizens reject scientific expertise and prefer ideology to facts. They are not merely uninformed--they are misinformed. They cite cherry-picked evidence, rely on fake experts, and believe conspiracy theories. How can we convince such people otherwise? How can we get them to change their minds and accept the facts when they don't believe in facts? In this book, Lee McIntyre shows that anyone can fight back against science deniers, and argues that it's important to do so. Science denial can kill. Drawing on his own experience--including a visit to a Flat Earth convention--as well as academic research, McIntyre outlines the common themes of science denialism, present in misinformation campaigns ranging from tobacco companies' denial in the 1950s that smoking causes lung cancer to today's anti-vaxxers. He describes attempts to use his persuasive powers as a philosopher to convert Flat Earthers; surprising discussions with coal miners; and conversations with a scientist friend about genetically modified organisms in food. McIntyre offers tools and techniques for communicating the truth and values of science, emphasizing that the most important way to reach science deniers is to talk to them calmly and respectfully--to put ourselves out there, and meet them face to face.

Can Scientists Believe

Author: Sir Nevill Mott
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135882215
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
In this collection of thought-provoking essays, a range of distinguished scientists and theologians, men and women, young and old, all with strong scientific training and deeply held religious beliefs, in the Judeao-Christian tradition, give their personal answers. They do not always agree, the views of each contributor being informed both by their particular scientific expertise and religious affiliation. They address a wide range of problems that will interest all concerned to reconcile their own religious beliefs with currently-accepted scientific theory and practice. The divergences of opinion are as a significant as the agreements. Positions are thoughtfully explained and make important, often novel and illuminating, contributions to debate on these great issues.