During the seminar we were trying to answer the questions “What
is the theory?” and “What is the hypothesis”.
After discussion in group we made a conclusion that the scientific
theory is based on observation and aimed to explain what had happened. The simplest
example is theory of gravitation: first, it was observed that things all the
time fall down and then explained how it worked.
There are philosophical theories based on ideas and scientific
theories based on empirical data. The goal of creation theory is not just
explain the phenomena, but find the truth. Even if we are talking about scientific
theory, truth is always relative even if it used empirical data. So the truth
can be find just through philosophical discussions and explanation of results.
It was unclear for me to understand the difference between
theory and hypothesis and define what comes first theory or hypothesis. Hypothesis
is connected with theory, but related to narrow subject. I can say that
hypothesis is a guess how objects relate to each other. Basically, hypothesis
is a statement that should be approved or disapproved by test or experiment. In
group discussion we brought up the idea of “theory flow”: Theory →Brainstorm →hypothesis
→methods/tests →discussion.
If I explained what theory is to first-year student, I would
say that theory is framework or structured knowledge based on that framework
rules that explain how and why processes or phenomena work.
After the seminar I understand better what the theory is and
what the hypothesis is. I liked the definition of theory by our teacher “Theory
is what practice is not.”
You have written a really good reflection where you have summed up the important concepts and given examples that support your statements. I agree with what you have written but I would also like to add something we talked about during the discussion, that there is a difference between scientific theory (based on knowledge) and philosophical theory (based on ideas). Good job!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeletethanks a lot for sharing your thoughts. I really enjoyed reading your blog post since you have summed up all the important aspects. I especially enjoyed the part about the "theory flow". In our group, we also discussed this part and came up with almost the same approach. Furthermore, I would like to add Thomas Kuhn and his paradigm shift, which is a phrase to describe a change or "revolution" in the basic concepts of a scientific discipline. Good Job!
It is obvious that you put a lot of time and effort into your two posts this week. You did a great job by structuring the topics and focussing on the main points of your research paper, the lecture and the seminar. I think the most interesting thing of the comments this week is to read the research articles chosen by every student. The role of Twitter in the Political Campaign seems very contemporary and the integration of social media a development of new media that will just rise in the future. Interesting read!
ReplyDeleteinteresting question on theory and hypothesis you raised. from my understanding hypothesis is a tool to produce new theory. but hypothesis can also base on existing theory. so it can either be
ReplyDeletetheory -> hypothesis -> newfindings ( new theory)
or hypothesis -> theory ?
anyways nice reflecting blog. keep it up :)
Your reflection is good and interestingand I like it very much.Especially when you expain the idea of "theory of flow" you used the "arrow"to connect each step of the "theory of flow".It can make your explanation easier and clearer by using arrow.Also,I like your sentence "theory is framework or structured knowledge based on that famework rules that explain how and why processes or phenomena work". This summary of the expanation of the theory is really good and logical.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up
Hi Masha!
ReplyDeleteI think that you have wrote a good post about the main keywords from the theme and I hope that you have learned a lot. The theory flow was a very interesting part of your post and I think that it could help people to understand the way of thinking when it comes to concept of theory. I also like that you are mentioning that theory is like a framework, that simplifies the way of understand what theory is. I would also like to add that we talked about paradigm shift during our seminar which I thought is worth mentioning around this topic.
You did a good job pointing out the most important points of the theme. Although I already know a lot about theory and hypothesis the question of what was first was very interesting and I started thinking about it way more than I thought I could. I liked the discussion in the seminar about religion which showed me that you can not always talk about theory and hypothesis just because something seems very similar. In my opinion your explanation with the "theory-flow" is very useful, because it shows how the process works (at least how I think it works). The term framework is a very good one to describe theory and I also liked the sentence "theory is what practice is not" a lot.
ReplyDeleteI like that you provided separate description of scientific theory and philosophical theories. I think you have concisely explained why they are. I need to admit that it wasn’t easy for me either to distinguish between hypothesis and theory in the beginning. I agree that hypothesis is a guess and it should be either rejected or proved by experiment to explained via a theory.
ReplyDeleteI like the concept of “theory flow”, I think it is quite interesting. Good job!
Hello !
ReplyDeleteI agree, the phrase "Theory is what practice is not" pretty much sums up everything. It has also been quite the revelation to me when I heard the teacher say it, and it stuck with me until now.
I like the idea of "theory flow" that you've brought up, it would be interesting to know more about this : I'm not quite sure this is generalizable to philosophical theories for example? On top of this, we'd generally be more inclined to say that theories are based on observations, and that leads to hypothesis ?
(Sorry for the cut up comment, I posted before finishing writing)
DeleteThen with the resources and data, we bring the theory up by causally linking everything together, and replying to the question posed by the hypothesis - the link between the two entities that we've formulated. Do you think the theory flow is something that's generalizable and … is a theory in itself?
Thanks for your thought provoking post !