perscribed title #10 outline

Prescribed title: What similarities and differences are there between Scientific and Historical Explanations?

Body 1: similarities
1: similarities between history and science explanation
 Conformation bias: both history and science use this when forming a hypothesis or thesis
o Personal experience: TOK checks lab; my group disregarded certain information because we did not find it relevant to our thesis.|
o Physics labs: I have disregarded information that disproved one of my hypotheses because it believed that it was a fluke in the testing.
2
 Ways of knowing (perception) is used in both areas of knowledge.
o History example: we can see that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is the spark that caused the First World War and use that as a key fact to explain why Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia.
o Science example: we can feel that Heat is a byproduct of friction (rubbing our hands together.) / We can see that heat is a byproduct of friction by the way that a fire is stared when two pieces of wood are rubbed together and begin to smolder.
3
 Implications of similarities:
o By creating a similarity between science and history explanations, may mean that the two can influence each other, such as we can predict historical events by the things leading up to them.
o Understanding = predicting
o Abel states that understanding an event does not mean that it can be predicted (science)

Body 2: differences
4
 Reasoning: induction vs. deduction
o Sciences uses induction: scientific explanations use small specific details to create laws and theories.
• Ex) in physics we noticed the effects of gravity and tested the properties of it. This explanation of gravity is one of the key components of the General Theory of Relativity, which is used to explain the motion of all astrological bodies.
• Ex) we watched the movie “Judgment Day: intelligent design on trial” in TOK. In the movie, it explained that Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution from first specifically studying the beaks of finches in the south pacific Galapagos Island.
o History uses deduction: Historical explanations are deduced from large events to figure out the causes of the effect.
• Ex) we now know that Osama bin Laden was the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attack, through deducing what the bombing style was, the motivations for attacking, and foreign threats.
5
 Testability
o Facts are derived from testing
o Scientific explanations can be tested repeatedly. The whole point of science is to prove a hypothesis through repetitive testing
o Historical explanations cannot be repeated to prove that they are fact. We know the causes of single party states to rise such as Mussolini’s Italy, but we cannot determine if one will rise in the future by evaluating current conditions.




6
 explanation influences
o Explanations in science and history are differently influenced.
o Ex) historical explanations are valid to the time era only when the background of the event has been thoroughly investigated.
• The assassination of Franz Ferdinand can only be understood as the spark of the First World War only after someone understands that there was political tension between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, and that there was an alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary at the time of 1914.
o Sciences is independent from background information on the hypothesis that it is testing
• Ex) you do not need to know how the general theory of relativity was formulated and what the ideas are behind Albert Einstein’s reasoning in the formulas in order to test the equation.

Conclusion
7
 There are more differences between scientific explanation and historical explanation than there are similarities.




Bibliography:
Keegan, John. The First World War. New York: Knopf, 1999. Print.

brave new world chapter 10

1. the director feels that unorthodoxy is worse than murder because murder may kill the individual, of which they can produce vast amounts more. but unorthodoxy taints the many, and threatens the workings of society itself, which is more valuable than the world government than one life. when Bernard returns to London, the director wants him to be transferred out of society and punished for his refusal of the social norm.

2. Bernard had brought Linda back with him and John which he claims is the directors son.

abel questions

1. science explains a fact by taking a general law and deriving the fact depending on the circumstances of the fact. fact is taken from the before and after of the event.
2. some common misconceptions about scientific explanation are:
a. science describes rather than explain. however, Abel claims that there is no distinct recognition between explanation and description
b. sciences explains the strange with the familiar. Abel states that it is the other way around with the familiar being explained by the strange
c. Science explanation is not the same as "understanding." Abel says that this knowledge is more like "knowledge by acquaintance" or like "knowing how."
d. a scientific explanation does not need to be casual. abel states that it may be a law of simultaneous existence rather than succession.
3. General law is deduced from a broader view rather than induced from experiment.
4. explanations depend on the person. since different knowers perceive different truths for some situations. there has to be a point were all perceived knowledge must be the same to have a knowledgeable situation.
5. explanatory reductions are economic ways of describing phenomena because these reductions simplify the concept without eliminating any parts of understanding
6. scientific explanation requires the concepts of a system because because each part of the system is combined to create a complete concept rather than a computer system finding the sum of the event.
7. the theory of emergence is used to explain the how anything never came into this world because one can predict the sum of something combined, even though there are two separate entities.
8. theory and observation are independent from each other because observation does not constitute a theory.
9. scientific explanation is theoretically identical to prediction because if something can be predicted, that means that there is an understanding to how that something works. Abel argues that explanation does not need to predict anything in understanding it.
10. Abel means that many factors influence the progression of science which does not make it clear cut, but can take many directions
11.the situations that require explanation are situations that seem "natural" to us.
12. the human element cannot be eliminated from the process of scientific explanation because we provide all the rules and create the laws.
12. this does hold true in history because history is always changing depending on new information being found

brave new world chapter 9

1. when lenina got back to the rest-house, she had taken six and a half grams of soma to complete her day that was full of queerness

2. Bernard asks Mustapha Mond for a permit to bring both John and Linda back to London, which he is granted.

3. when john is by lenina, he begins to recite Shakespeare's "romeo and juliet." this is significant because john eventually finds himself in love with lenina.

perscribed title #8

"People need to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events" (adapted from John Gray, Heresies, 2004). In what ways and to what extent would you say this claim is relevant in at least two areas of knowledge?

We, as humans, are generally pattern makers. We feel the need to apply order to all things that we cannot explain. We seem to believe that we can bring order to things that are not orderly and understand matters that do not seem to be comprehendible. This belief of adding order to all things blends over into the ways of knowing and influences their course of knowledge. This is most prominent in the Natural sciences, and in History. In these two areas, we create meaning behind events and attempt to give a cause for the effect of the event.
Physics is a natural science that attempts to add order to events that seem out of place and random. This can be seen it the way physicists create equations for events that do not seem important to us as humans, or things that we cannot even see. Quantum mechanics, the dealing with subatomic particles, is something that physicists have tried to apply order to. In the way that it is described, particles at the subatomic level are unpredictable and can be in two places at once, making any kind of prediction impossible. These physicists that found this subatomic plane however created equations of probability to attempt to apply human order to it and to predict the appearance of these particles at a certain time. These physicists use induction to apply a general law to this theory of quantum mechanics, even though this plane of existence cannot be seen buy any kind of device. Through this, they have managed to show through equations and experiments that what equations they have written are valid in this field of study.
This is just one of many examples that famous physicists have done, but I have done this on a smaller scale in my high school physics class. Every few weeks we perform an experiment to determine some sort of general rule to a problem or to determine why there is energy lost in a certain machine process. We once were given a small engine to experiment with. We knew that energy was being lost due to friction, but we did not know how much energy. It was our goal to figure the amount lost because it was not know to this type of engine.
The other natural science that tries to apply order is chemistry. When I took chemistry, we learned that chemists discovered a way of combining elements. These men figured out that in order to combine and separate molecules, there needed to be the same number of different atoms on either side of an equation, where one side is equal to another. Even though this did not prove useful at an earlier time, the fact remains that when these chemists did not understand how some elements bonded with others and, in this confusion, they created a rule that explained the reason for these elements changing.
Even though we like to apply order to science and scientific phenomena, there are problems with wanting to apply order to this area of knowledge. One of the key characteristics of science is that it is always changing. Because it is always changing, there is no definite equation or theory, which means that these theories and equations can be disproved in the near future, proving that the efforts of some men and women were completely wrong. These happen when we discover new facts about that field that conflict with the given knowledge. For example, in physics we learned that light was accepted as a wave, but through experiments we determined that light also behaved as a particle. This paradox has caused many shifts in the theory of light and is still split to this day.
I have had this same problem when working in my science classes through out high school, to a lesser extent. For example, we were asked to write a general formula for an application in physics regarding the motion of a spring. I had written a formula that worked for predicting the position of the mass oscillating on the spring. It worked when I tested it. However, the next step involved adding another factor and having the equation still produce the same graph. When I added this new factor, my equation was off and I had to rewrite the entire equation over with different values for everything.
Another area of knowledge that we order can be seen in its chaos is mathematics. Math is close to physics in that it is used to develop patterns and laws with numbers which are tested. Some examples of these are the Pythagorean Theorem, and the Einstein’s theory of relativity. The way that these theorems came around is by the need to give order. The Pythagorean Theorem was conceived by Pythagoras who discovered that when the two smaller sides of a triangle are squared, they will equal the square of the hypotenuse. This would give an n accurate way of building instead of just improvising while you go.
During the writing of my math internal assessment, we were asked to find a general statement to solve for a logarithmic pattern. Even though I had solved the general statement, it was expected to only work for whole values. However, I thought that it would be unusual if the pattern only applied to whole numbers. So I tested it with different values giving uneven numbers and the general rule still applied.
Even though we apply order to all things around us, we generally do not know if it is organizing the chaos there is. We still have problems and are constantly trying to solve them, with no luck.
In chaos, we apply order because we believe that order can be applied. This is the main reason why we keep trying. Through the natural sciences we have found was of solving energy problems as well as applying rules to things that seem random and chaotic. We do this because we are pattern makers and we see things as needing to be organized and set straight. However, being a maker of patterns and applying order, we do have the habit of applying things that could lead to more chaos instead of creating order. even though we can screw up by applying faulty order to chaos, we still believe that order can be applied to everything.

brave new world chapter 8

1. John's upbringing is harsh and cruel by standards of today. his mother neglected him to be another man, he was abused by the others ans cursed by the Indians simply because he was the son hf Linda. i think that John claims that he is alone because there is no one that can sympathize with his situation. all the others judge him and do not even attempt to know him. Bernard instead sympathizes with John because Bernard feels that he is alone back in London.

2. John says "o brave new world" because it is a lien from Shakespeare. john had been reading Shakespeare and loved the way that he wrote plays. the notion of "brave new world" is that Bernard is going to take John back to London with him, which an entirely different world to John.

Jared diamond questions

1. The dispute between Huntington and Lang is over the topic of soft sciences and hard sciences. Lang believes that Soft sciences should not be considered sciences at all.

2. Langs response to Huntington was to send out folders filled with documents from three different writers. He then asked that the receiver pay for the cost of the shipment of these documents to them.

3. The dispute between the two seems political because Lang has a history of involvement with politics that influenced the NAS. With this he can influence the vote over Huntington. Jared Diamond feels that “academic freedom” is that only scholars can question other scholars about his/her politics, whereas outsiders cannot.

4. NAS exists to extract the best people from each field of science. These attacks are peculiar because diamond has been a member for 8 years.

5. He finds fault in these tradition perceptions of hard sciences because most stereotypes of a scientist is someone in a lab coat working complex test tubes and equations. Also, these hard sciences have a traditional perception of producing hard evidence from highly controlled experiments.

6. Soft sciences are difficult to study because they aren’t something that is tangible or concrete. These sciences depend on conditions and patterns.

7. NAS changed in the early 70's by allowing scientists from all fields to be admitted. This decision was influenced by the government which needs competent advice about social problems.

8. The problems with operationalizing a concept are that there would need to be a series of experiments that yield suitable results. Another problem with operationalizing a concept is that sometimes there is no experiment that can be done.

9. How Jared Diamond illustrates operationalizing different sciences:

• Mathematics: without a proper number system, the idea of “many” cannot be argued or comprehended
• Chemistry: cannot speculate about matter unless you know how many materials there are.
• Ecology: operationalizing different habits
• Psychology: cannot operationalize a doctor.

10. The book by Huntington that provoked Lang's wrath discussed such operationalized concepts as economic well-being, political instability, and social and economic modernization

11. operationalizing is more difficult and less exact in the soft sciences because of the variables. In these sciences, there are more variables that need to be controlled in order to create an experiment.

12. Diamond believes that Lang might be ignorant because he does not know how social sciences make measurements.

13.diamond believes that the labels of science be could be changed from hard to “difficult” and from soft to “easy.” This should be done because some sciences are harder to comprehend that others, regardless of them being soft vs. hard.

14. Diamond believes that soft sciences are more important than hard sciences. i do not agree with this because soft science experiments can be done over and yield different results, having to keep improving the test and changing the scope of the experiment.

brave new world chapter 7

1. How does Lenina feel about their appointed guide? Lenina does not like the indian guy because he smells.

2. How does Lenina react to "naked Indian"(p. 110)? Does it remind you of anyone else we have studied? lenina was frightened by the man because he was old, and had not taken any preventative measures on his age. this is similar to our study of Buddhism because prince Siddhartha too had never seen "old." but was not as shocked and appalled, but rather was intrigued by what he saw.

3. How does Bernard react to the pueblo of Malpais?

4. Who is Linda? What is her relationship to Tomakin? Linda was the woman that the director lost when he had visited the reservation twenty years before. linda's description of Tomakin is that of the director, Thomas

5. Why does Linda believe that "everything they do is mad"(p. 121)? Please be specific. linda believes that what the savages do is mad because it is nothing like the life she sees as normal. the indians, instead of getting new cloths when one piece has been riped or torn, they mend them anew.

brave new world chapter 6

Part I

1. Why does Lenina think Bernard Marx "odd" - please use specific references from this chapter in your answer. Lenina thinks that bernard is odd because, as henry explains, he didnt respond well to his conditioning. this lead to the lack of conformaity he has with the others in his caste group and in society in general. he doesn't enjoy the sports games they play like obstacle golf and would rather spend time going for a walk by the lake and talking with lenina. Bernard is also odd in that he likes natural scenery such as the sky, as well as peace and quiet time alone.

2. Please provide more lines from Lenina that she learned from hypnopedia (there are some great ones in this chapter!). Do any of them remind you of sayings that we may use - please don't use commercial jingles. i.e. "1-800-54-Giant!"

• a gram in time saves nine
• a gram is always better than a damn-(hugs are better than drugs)
• everyone works for everyone else

3. What is Fanny's explanation for Bernard's behavior? he had aalchol put into his surrogate which is used to "dumb down" the child when it grows.

Part II

4. What did the Director tell Bernard about his own trip to the Reservation? Why did it initially make Bernard feel uncomfortable? the director had visited the reservation twenty years before with a woman to view the savages. he got lost and was never found. it initially made Bernard uncomfortable because the director, a man who was known for being conventional, had been using very nonstandard language. he was also reminicing about the past, which was discouraged.

5. What does the Director threaten Bernard with if he doesn't change his behavior? Why does it elate Bernard? the director threatens to transfer bernard to a sub-center in iceland if he hears of his "off" behavior again. this elates bernard because he is acknowledged for being an individual agaisnt the social order.

Part III

6. How does the Warden describe the Reservation? the reservation is a sort of backward area that had beliefs and customs (such as natural birth) that are oppose to the culture of the world state. those who are in the reservation are born and die there. they are descibed as savages.

the Nacirema

After the Nacirema exercise, please answer the following:
1. What happened yesterday? Why couldn't we recognize our own culture? yesterday, i was tricked by the reading and the presentation into relating the "culture" to some barbaric tribe. i don't think that we could recognize our culture because of the way that it was presented to us. the association of words with pictures skewed our thinking
2. What does your answer say about the the strengths and weaknesses of the Social Sciences like Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology? the social science are weak in the respect that conclusions are based on the way that they are viewed. there can be very different results if the research is viewed in a different context and by different people. the fact that we tend to criticize cultures that we are unfamiliar with shows that we a a judging people.

brave new world chapter 5

2. Do you see any similarities with how the World State views death as compared to the Hindus? How does Lenina's remembrance of hypopedia compare with what is discussed in Plato's Republic? in both hinduism and the World state, the dead are burned because the bodies are not pure. Lenina's hypnopedia compares with plato's republic because in both instances, there is a mention that even though there are different levels of people, all are nessecary in the stability of society.

3. What do you think of Lenina's and Henry night out on the town? looking on it as i am today, i find that it is now way to spend an evening out. the image of dancing in a hall of over 400 people seems claustrophobic as well as the desription of the playing as if the instruments were near death. of course, its just me in that i do not like to spend time out around many other people, but i perfer solitude and quiet.

4. Why do you think Huxley uses the word "pneumatic" to refer to some female characters? the definition of pneumatic is: of or relating to air. Huxley uses this word to desribe women becuase in this society he created, sex is so free that it really has no distinct purpose like it does in our society. it is as meaningless as air

5. What is Solidarity Service and what are Bernard's feelings towards it? Solidarity service is essentially an orgy of 12 people who are under the influence of soma (just your average thursday night). bernard feels that these services tend to further his isolation.

man is the measure chapter 15

1. Abel believes that history is being constantly rewritten because it has always and will always

2. the factors that influence the process by which facts are chosen are

• personal interest: what the writer focuses on and disregards
• change in coneptual apparatus: after thoughts for events such as learning what Marx thought of the american civil war.
• change in basic historical segments:
• personal interest in history changes:
• the audience that it is being written for.

3. the baconian fallacy is that all historians do is amass a story from the facts. this fallacy would be in agreement with the positivists who believe that history is a science. however, Carr would most likely disagree with this statement because he believes that history is not just a mass of facts, but is biased to fit the writer.

4. Abel states that history differs from geology because the historian attributes meaning to the facts and data.

5.i would agree with this statement over the subject of history. for example, during our "checks" lab, my group had inferred a story through a limited amount of facts, even though those facts might not have been related at all.

6. i do not know how future historians will describe events happening today because the writing of history is dependent on the historian. i will never know how the future will view our time because i can never know what the majority belief is at that time.

7. historical pluralism denies the belief that every event is somehow related to every other historical event.

8. it really doesn't matter if there was ever a man who was named Trotsky, as long as historians recognize that there was a man who had done what he did.

9. A historian is like a physicist because neither person truly knows all there is to know about one specific topic, or everything for that matter.

10. the five frameworks of history:

• all history is cyclical: there have always been, and will always be dictators that rise in times of Crisis such as Hitler, Julius Caesar, and Stalin
• history is functional in that it certain causes will always have the same effects: racial tensions will always lead to segregation
• progress is only a new concept in the study of history: the term "golden age" came about after it had already passed
• according to the Christian view, history is just sin and redemption.
• society can be viewed as a living organism: civilization can be seen to grow from infancy to dying in senility such as the USSR that rose in the 1910's and died in 1991

TOK and history

similarities and differances between the checks-lab and how history is made.

similarities:

• speculation (fill-in-th-blanks)
• not all facts are given
• chronological reasoning
• ways of knowing (induction and deduction)
• time restraint to find a conclusion
• ignored and/or focused on certain pieces of information

differences:

• have a more variety of sources
• no eye witness accounts
• objective of the checks
• written by someone who is well educated in the field

brave new world chapter 4

1.lenina is puzzled about Bernard's embarrassment over her talking with him outright in front of everyone else.

2. Lenina's hypnopaedia comes into view when she says she is glad that she is not a gamma.

3. lenina and henry where off to play a game of obstacle golf.

part 2

1. Bernard Marx is distressed over how he was talked about among the Alphas over rumors that he was tampered with when he was still an embryo.
2. Hemholtz watson worked for the bureau of propaganda and was a writer and lecturer at a university
3. Watson and Marx both feel that they are out of place in there caste and in society. Watson believes that that he has done all there is and does not see it as fullfilling, whereas Marx sees himself out of place among the Alphas.
4. Hemholtz is troubled by something that he does not have. he feels that ther is something inside him that could be on the outside if things were different in the way people were run

essay notes

“We see and understand things not as they are, but as we are” discuss this claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing.

Ways of knowing

1. language
• Texts and literature: reaction to texts depends on beliefs of the topic; ex) the communist manifesto. I have conservative views of how a government should work, so I see this type of writing (communist manifesto) as cynical. Therefore, all texts that write like this I see as being terrible
• Religion: religious terms have a different meaning on those who do not understand them. Radical Islamists are seen as terrorists in today’s view because of the way they speak. Words such as “infidel” and “jihad” have a negative connotation in western society. When we hear these words now, we immediately associate them with Islamists. The same is true in Christianity. The image of the Crusades is perceived by Christians as a brave attempt to take back the Holy land. However, Arabs may see this as an assault to take what they see as holy.
2. perception
• Visualization: depictions of war and soldiers; ex) in the war in Iraq, the media is portraying the U.S. as being a terrible outside force through the aid of television. The people who film and depict these events had their own personal view of the war and how it should be handled. For instance, most of these media stations that portray the war as being wrong are run by people that are anti-war, and therefore integrate that image into their filming and broadcasts.
3. Emotion
• Images: Different people react to images differently depending on how they are raised. Ex) we visited the shepherd Fairey exibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art. His artwork was very political in a sense that it was portraying a Democrat idea. Because I was raised conservative, I was struck with confusion as to exactly why his reflected that idea and why he would believe.

brave new world chapter 3

A) Sex, Monogamy & Romance : the world state encourages sexual activity at early ages viewing at as a normal activity for all ages. the world state also looks down on monogomy and romance because it confines one person to another, which goes against the belief that everyone belongs to everyone else.
B) Sports: games and sports should be complicated so that it increases the consumption of the players
C) Entertainment: should not get in the way of a workers job.
D) Parenthood: frowned upon because it is seen as a selfish thing to keep one to themselves and from the state.
E) Materialism: it is good for the people to consume
F) Religion: religion is void and not a part if the world state.
G) Intoxicants: drugs such as soma are a regular part of daily activities

brave new world chapter 2

1. How do babies sent to the Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms develop an "instinctive hatred of books and flowers?" Why were Deltas exposed to such treatment? the children were conditioned to hate books and flowers by associating these objects with shock therapy and shrill noises. this conditioning kept the children away form books and flowers with they believed will harm them.

2. What is a State Conditioning Center? Does it remind you of anything from Plato's Republic? the state conditioning center is where children of different castes were sent to have there instincts "trained." this is an allusion to Socrates' theory of the city where each caste system is to work at their level and stray from what they were conditioned to do.

3. What is hypnopaedia? Why wasn't it used for Science? What was it used for? Does it remind you of anything from Plato's Republic? Hypnopaedia was the process of teaching to ones unconscious side while they were sleeping. it wasn't used for scientific purposes because it did not yield any positive learning results. however, this process was used in the conditioning center for children to train their unconscious minds into accepting their caste status.

4. How does the Caste system work in the World State? What are the similarities and differences between this and the Hindu Caste system? the caste system in the World State is separated into 5 different castes, with one that has a higher status than the one after it. this system is similiar to the caste system of Hinduism because there five levels of the caste. however, unlike the Hindu caste system, one does not progress up the system when they die in order to achieve Moksha, but they are condemned to remain at that level until they die, then that is it for them.

5. What does the Director mean when he says, "Not so much like drops of water....rather, drops of liquid sealing wax."? by using this statement of liquid sealing wax, the director is saying that, unlike water, the kids would not be able to be remolded into a different form, they would always be in the caste that they were designated to be in.

brave new world

1. the state world motto was "community, identity, and stability."

2. the process was used to split an egg into two identical eggs which in turn is used to make up to 96 embryos. these embryos then grow up into 96 identical twins. the director calls this the major instrument of social stablility becase it allows people to be developed so that they will preform in a predestined job.

3. the Epsilion's to be kept below the bar so that they could be controlled easily and not have any intelligence to know that they were be controlled. also, they would enjoy what every life gave them.

4. Mr. Foster is saying that the scientists make the embryos enjoy their work so they work their hardest and acomplish the maximum of their ability. everybody works better when they enjoy what they are doing. This connects to what is happening in Row 10 because their aim is to nurture the embryo so it feels truly comfortable in a "home" type enviroment.

SHIVA: the destroyer; the feared one; the supreme one

notes from "the republic of plato"

Justice - work - good -virtue - prudent - wise -happy
injustice - corrupt work - bad - vice - thoughtless - unlearned - bad wretched

BOOK II

first introduction of "the city"
characteristics of the city Guardians

• philosopher (king)
• lover of learning
• spirited
• swift
• strong

reared and educated with Music and gymnastics

BOOK III

in the city there are 3 groups of people

1. Gold
guardians of the city
led by wisdom
calculating (superego)
2. Silver
Auxiliary and soldiers
led by courage
irrational (id)
3. iron & bronze
peasants and farmers
led by moderation
spirited (ego)


each class can spawn a child that could be of another class within the city

in order to have a just city:
each class is to isolated from the other two classes
everyone, regardless of position and labor, it to have an equal fixed wage
no one is to have private property
everyone gets what they essentially need

socrates believed that this system will create a perfect "just" city.