I TRANSMIT,THEREFORE I AM. MARS ROVER ----- Original Message ----- From: John Kulig To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012 1:31 PM Subject: Re: [tips] Is a scientific study necessarilly a science?
I am replying to get back into the swing of things here and exercise my typing fingers :-) I like to think that probability is an inherent part of all sciences, though the margin of error (MOE) varies from discipline to discipline. Interestingly, I once had a long discussion with a computational physicist (I believe that's what he called himself) who had no use for MOEs and claimed that in certain areas of physics they really nailed issues and there was no slop, predictions were perfect. He had no use for "percent of variance accounted for." But, to beat an old philosophical issue to death, if the Mars Rover transmitted signals and there was nobody to hear them, would the Mars Rover cease to exist?? ========================== John W. Kulig, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Coordinator, University Honors Plymouth State University Plymouth NH 03264 ========================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: "mjchael sylvester" <[email protected]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, August 6, 2012 11:14:16 AM Subject: [tips] Is a scientific study necessarilly a science? Although Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior,one difference between it and the other hard sciences is that there is an element of permanence in the other hard sciences that is not obvious for psychology.If all humans became extinct on the planet tomorrow,psychology would no longer exist.However the Mars' rover would still be collecting and analysing info. How pretentious we are in Tipsville?We are not scientists.No amount of psychology could have predicted the killing at the temple in Wisconsin. Probability is not enough,we must be exact. Michael 'omnicentric' Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13338.f659d005276678c0696b7f6beda66454&n=T&l=tips&o=19514 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-19514-13338.f659d005276678c0696b7f6beda66...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13424.eb17e1c03643c971ab35c22d86587541&n=T&l=tips&o=19516 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-19516-13424.eb17e1c03643c971ab35c22d86587...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=19521 or send a blank email to leave-19521-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
