Choose ONE of the options below for your initial post. Option #1: Scientific Reasoning Science is one of the most successful endeavors of mankind. Through the power of reason and careful observation, humans have found out how to get to the moon, cure diseases, and overcome many of the discomforts of nature. This discussion prompt provides you with an opportunity to practice identifying and evaluating specific types of scientific inference. Prepare: Read Chapters 5 and 6 from the course text, in addition to the required resources for this week. Search for some scientific discovery that is interesting to you. It could be recent or old. Learn about how that discovery came about, and the type of reasoning that was used. You will be addressing the selected scientific discovery for this discussion. Reflect: Evaluate the reasoning that was used on the basis of this week’s readings. You will need to do enough background reading to have a general idea of the basis for the discovery. Remember that the goal of this discussion is not to simply report what was discovered, but to examine the logic that led to establishing the outcome. Write: Within your post: ? Include a link or bibliographical information for the source. ? Briefly summarize the discovery and the process that led to it. ? Explain the sense in which the discovery involved inductive inference. (It is extremely likely that it did.) ? If it did, present a portion of the process as an instance of one of the types of inductive argument covered in this week’s readings. Be sure to clearly demonstrate how the argument is of the type you claim. Hint: if you can’t find a more specific type, almost all scientific discoveries can be presented as Inference to the Best Explanation. ? Evaluate the argument using criteria appropriate to its type. State whether the argument is strong or weak. ? Identify ways in which the argument might be strengthened or weakened. Option #2: The Importance of the Principle of Charity One of the most important ways to grow intellectually (and otherwise) is to actually listen to others and seek to understand them as they intend to be understood. Yet it is all too common for people to understand others in ways that do not reflect the best and most fair interpretation of their intended meaning. Prepare: Review “Principle of Accuracy and the Principle of Charity” from Chapter 9, along with the required resources from this week. Reflect: Find specific examples in the media or in life in which someone misunderstands someone else. This happens a lot with political and religious arguments, but it also happens in daily life, especially when we find ourselves in conflict with others. Have you interpreted others uncharitably? Write: Present a case, either in the media or in your own life, in which someone interpreted another uncharitably. What specifically did the first person say? In what way did the other person understand it? What did the person really mean? Do you think that the misunderstanding was intentional? What were the consequences of the misunderstanding? How might the situation have been better if the person had practiced the principle of charity? Finally, are there areas in which you could do more to understand others favorably? How might you be a wiser person if you did so?
