Outline

What similarities and differences are there between Scientific and Historical Explanations?

Opening:

Overview of "what is science, versus what is history"

-Science: can experiment

-History: gathers information from the past

Ways of knowing with science and history

-science: perception, reason, language

-history: perception, language, reason (emotion?)

Mention that there are counterclaims, implications, etc

Body Paragraph 1:

Differences in the way they EXPLAIN things

-science uses deduction

->Framework- we make inferences , assume, educated guess, hypothesis, conclusion

-history uses induction

->bigger picture... why did something happen? oh, because of these certain things going on.

-science can experiment so that they can falsify a hypothesis.

-history gathers information that is already there, and make inferences upon that.

Body Paragraph 2

Similarities between the explanations

-History has two different aspects to it...

-Carr "its not history until the historian says so."

-Positivists "facts are out there waiting for the historians to discover..."

-Science has two subcategories

-Natural sciences: things such as chemistry, physics..

-Social sciences: psychology, etc.

-Both science and history pick and choose their facts.

->Historians choose which aspects of the past are "important."

->Scientists choose which variables are important to look at...

-Both science and history are constantly changing.

->Science: the theory of Darwin... now the idea of creationism?

->History: what actually caused WWII?

-Neither science nor history can "prove" something.

-Science falsifies things.

-History finds evidence to create an idea of what occurred...

Body Paragraph 3

-Counterclaims

-with history, there may be problems with the perception used, the way a person interprets things. language is translated over so many years. however, science is more "solid." no perception issues -> measurements. one pound is one pound, regardless... etc.

-Implications

-science and history have some similarities, and differences, which could affect the way we interpret certain situations

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Abel, Reuben. Man is the Measure. New York: The Free Press, 1976.

-also, the movie from class on Darwin vs. dover school board... but i don't know the name