CHEM 241 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Gas Laws, Scientific Law, Moral Responsibility

• School: Drexel University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHEM 241
• Professor: Rutkowsky Susan

Document Summary

There are several basic tenets (presuppositions) that science relies on: order in nature. Nature has an underlying order, shown in patterns and regularities that can be discovered. Such knowledge is attainable, and human intellect is capable of acquiring it, even though infinite variations exist: uniformity of nature. The forces of nature are uniform throughout space and time. What happens here in one laboratory also occurs in other countries around the world (in both the past and present) under the same conditions: validity of sense perception. Reliable data can be obtained by using the human senses or their extensions (for example, measuring the heat evolved in a reaction with a thermometer): simplicity, moral responsibility. If two theories or explanations fit the data, the simpler is usually to be preferred. All scientists are expected to report honestly the results of their experiments so that others can have the confidence in their data and use those results in their own research.