Questions for Observation and Experiment

HERE ARE THE PRE-READING QUESTIONS. PICK ONE. ANSWER IT. THEN READ THE SELECTION WITH THE INTERPRETIVE NOTE SOURCE IN MIND (IS IS BELOW THE PRE-READING QUESTIONS).

Pre-Reading Questions
1. Is reason or imagination the more important tool for learning about the world?

2. Are there limits to what science can discover?

3. Can a person know a lot of facts and still be ignorant?

4. Why do two people observing the same thing frequently disagree about what they have seen?

5. How would you go about setting up an experiment to determine whether people are more or less friendly to you when you are wearing the color red?

6. Why is it often so hard for people to admit that an idea of theirs is wrong?

Interpretive Note Source (first reading)
Mark places where Bernard points out something good, or bad, about a scientist having preconceived ideas.

Interpretive Questions for Discussion
1. Why does formulating ideas in science require both reasoning and imagination?

2. According to Bernard, why can't we learn from nature just by observing?

3. Can facts be discovered without ideas?

4. Why does Bernard insist that experiment and observation are distinct but not separate? (137 - 138)

5. Is it desirable for the experimenter and the observer to be different people?

6. Can nature ever answer questions that are not asked?

7. For Bernard,does scientific investigation begin with an idea or a fact?

8. What does Bernard mean when he says "we never conceive a question without an idea which invites an answer"? (139)

9. Why does Bernard call facts discovered from hypotheses that turn out to be false, "indestructible materials for science"? (141)

10. Why does Bernard reject "utterly" specialization in the theory of science? (142)

11. According to Bernard, is the knowledge won by experimental science primarily factual or theoretical? (142-143)

12. Why are failed experiments valuable to scientists?

13. Why does Bernard think that observation does not involve any preconceived ideas?

14. Does Bernard think a scientist's pursuit of truth is ever completed?

Post Discussion Writing
1. Why do some people view science with hostility or suspicion?

2. Are you an observer or an experimenter?

3. Is science unable to solve the really difficult questions of life?

4. Through science, will human beings eventually know everything, or is the pursuit of knowledge endless?

5. Are you more likely to base your actions on ideas or observations?

6. Are there widely-accepted theories in society for which there are few, if any, supporting observations?

7. Do all "facts" have an element of personal interpretation in them?