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| knowledge based upon (after) experience |
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| knowledge independent of (prior to) experience |
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| the principle that entities can be individuated and exist independently of other entities to which they may be related. |
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| a history of significant conceptual continuities and discontinuities in the development of a discipline |
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| a history that attempts to explicate historical episodes and epochs neutrally in their own terms. |
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| crucial instance/crucial experiment |
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| an empirical outcome enabling the adjudication of competing theories via their different predictions about the same empirical domain. |
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| the principle that there is a set of prior conditions sufficient for the production of any event, such that no other outcome is possible. |
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| the view that scientific theory and causal explanation are restricted to the description of the correlation of observables. |
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| the method of eliminating competing causal hypotheses until only one viable hypothesis remains |
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| someone who maintains that all knowledge is a posteriori, based upon experience |
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| a question concerning our knowledge of reality. From the Greek episteme, meaning "knowledge." |
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| the principle that the best explanation of a complex entity, property, or process is given by an analysis of its material components. |
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| a history of a discipline in terms of (external) social, economic, political, and cultural conditions |
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| the characteristic of a scientific theory that allows it to be falsified by observation; also called testability. According to Popper, the ___ of scientific theories is what distinguishes science from pseudoscience. |
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| a history that ascribes major developments to the influence of individuals. |
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| the theory and methodology of history. |
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| hypothetico-deductive method |
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| the method of postulating theories and testing them via their deductive or predictive implications. |
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| the method of deriving theories from observations. |
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| the view that scientific theories about unobservable entities are not potentially true descriptions of them, but merely linguistic devises that facilitate the prediction of the behavior of observable entities. |
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| a history of a discipline in terms of the development of theories and methods within the discipline. |
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| the view that ultimate reality is material |
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| the doctrine that linguistic items derive their meaning by association with--or their definition in terms of--observable entities. |
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| the methodological principle that if instances of an effect have only one condition in common, then that condition is the cause of the effect |
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| method of concomitant variation |
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| the methodological principle that if one condition increases or decreases while an effect increases or decreases, that condition is the cause of the effect. |
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| the methodological principle that if an instance in which an effect occurs and an instance in which it does not occur differ with respect to only one condition, then that condition is the cause, or an essential part of the cause, of the effect. |
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| methodological empiricism |
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| the principle that requires that all scientific descriptions and explanations be subject to observational evaluation. |
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| predictions that go beyond the established empirical data that theories are introduced to explain and whose confirmation plays a significant role in establishing the theories. |
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| 1. a characteristic of propositions when their truth or falsity is determined by independent facts. 2. a characteristic of the theoretical judgements of scientists when they are unbiased, when they are based only upon empirical evaluation |
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| the principle that kinds of entities in a scientific domain can be re-identified in all regions of space and time |
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| a question concerning the fundamental nature of reality. From the Greek ontos, meaning "being" |
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| a definition of the meaning of theoretical propositions in terms of observables. |
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| a history in which a discipline is represented as approaching and approximating (idealized) contemporary theory and practice. |
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| a discipline in which theoretical propositions are untestable or unfalsifiable. |
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| the doctrine that all concepts or ideas are derived from experience. |
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| someone who maintains that it is possible to have a priori knowledge, independently of experience, based upon reason. |
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| the view that scientific theories about entities that are not observable are potentially true descriptions of them. |
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| an entity is ___ if it can be individuated and exist only in relation to other entities. |
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| a characteristic of the theoretical judgement of scientists when they are biased by individual or collective preferences or by social, political, or religious interests in the advocacy of certain theories. |
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| universality of causal explanation |
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| the principle that one and the same causal explanation applies to every instance of a class of events, regularities, or structures. |
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| a history that ascribes major development to the "spirit of the times." |
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