Questions and Journal Entry

1. What is Karl Popper's main argument?

Popper was not a scientist, but a political philosopher who proposed that science works by "falsifiability." This means that scientists discover facts; they create a theory to explain them; and the theory is accepted until it is falsified by the discovery of incompatible facts that then inspire a new theory.

2. Who was his primary enemy?

Freud was his primary enemy. Freud asserted that in our minds an ego mediates between an id and a superego, but because those entities are subconscious their existence cannot be tested. Popper said, therefore, that Freud's assertion was not scientific and was therefore invalid.

3. Is Popper correct?

McClure looked at students' brains using magnetic resonance, and he found that when making rational decisions they used parts of the brain that are unique to the human being and that evolved recently. McClure helped map the battles between Freud's id (short-term greed) and superego (long-term sanity) meditated by the ego. Therefore maybe Freud was a scientist and maybe Popper was doubly misled.

Journal entry: Write a response to the title question (who says science is about facts and/or facts only get in the way of a good theory in science.) Cite at least three examples (personal experience, historical examples, examples of current work in science.)

Scientists do not always include every finding in their data. They do not want to have outliers, which could potentially disprove their theories. Therefore, it is difficult to know if scientists are discussing everything they are finding, or if they are keeping their mouths shut on important information. This is similar to how doctors ignore drug company's warnings about potential harm.

People in general have tendencies to ignore things that do not fit their argument. Theories are always being disproven in science. Scientists want to keep their credibility with their theories, so sometimes they will avoid disproving their theories at all costs. They have reputations to uphold and do not want to have all their time invested in an experiment thrown out when someone else discovers something new.

The most accurate science includes all the data that is collected, not just the data that "fits" the experiment. It is important that scientists not leave out information because otherwise the information left out could have been valid to science in general. Therefore, scientists should properly include outliers, even if they could hurt their theories. In a way, facts do get in the way of a "good theory." This is because without facts, theories can not be disproven. This draws back to the issue of "falsification" addressed in the article regarding the article about Karl Popper.