This course begins by considering the characteristics of a scientific theory. Several examples have been assigned and it is expected that others have been read along the way. Having identified the characteristics of a scientific theory, the course then built background in logical reasoning using examples from science along the way. The simple conditional argument has been developed and used as the basis for all writing assignments. The next area of study was determining how to come up with the best theory when alternatives exist. The logic structure of abduction was used to give a format to the process.
It is now time to combine all of these areas together and analyze some current controversial scientific theories. This will be done in the context of a paper that has the same overall structure as before (a conditional argument as the basis of the paper), but includes an analysis of the merit as a scientific theory, a discussion of known observations, an evaluation of how well each theory explains the observations, and a determination of relative merit among all of the alternatives. This can be thought of as expanding homework #6 or homework #7 into a paper. The specific example that will be given is the paper that would result from the advanced example in the abduction section.
The main argument, which will be the basis of the first paragraph of these papers, should be something like:
If competing theories for an initial observation have been found to have merit as a scientific theory and one of the theories leads us to expect more data than the others, then the theory that leads us to expect the most data is the best theory.The x and y theories both have scientific merit for the initial observation, but x leads us to expect more data.
Therefore, x is the best theory.
The second paragraph supports the conditional in the main argument.
The next paragraph(s) would address the merit issue. Use Homework #4 as a model.
Following paragraphs would identify how each theory leads us to expect (or doesn't lead us to expect) each piece of data.
The last paragraph would summarize and state the overall conclusion of the paper. An example is given on the next page. A link to a second example is also available from that page. You can also use the menu to access the example (Content → Writing Papers → Example Papers).