1. Be able to define induction and show an example of inductive logic using Venn diagrams. How would the premises have to be written for inductive logic to be true? What is gambler's fallacy? What is the inductivist turkey? What did David Hume have to say about this matter?
2. Know the major themes of the 'Peppered Moth' article.
3. What did Popper have to say about Hume's problem? Know the answers to the questions from the article.What are some weaknesses of falsification and be able to give examples from history of science. What is 'incommensurability'?
4.What did Lakatos think science was? Be able to use the words: research programme, hard core, protective belt, positive heuristic.
5. What did Kuhn think science was? What is a paradigm shift? Know the answers to the questions from the article.
6. Discuss Feyerabend's anarchistic model of the scientific method. Know the answers to the article questions.
7. What is the importance of publishing in science ? Give three examples of how problems in the publishing world could affect the purity of science. What does 'publish or perish' mean? What is the recent dispute suurounding the Canadian Medical Association Journal? What rules did some major medical journals change regarding clinical trials for new prescription drugs?
8. Be able to answer any of the group presentation questions. They dealt with the following topics: Factors which contribute to the growth of science; Factors which limit the growth of science; Factors which help scientists decide which questions to work on; Do sex, culture and personal beliefs affect scientific knowledge?; Do other forms of knowledge (math, art , history, ethics....) grow in a similar manner as science?; What role does language play in the accumulation of scientific knowledge; Does the element of chance play a role in the growth of scientific knowledge?.
9. What does 'synergism' mean. Give an example of synergistic effects as discussed in class. How does synergism undermine the strength of scientific testing?
10. Discuss how the structure of government-run science labs may interfere with good scientific practices. Relate this topic to some past issues at Health Canada. Be able to answer the questions from the politics and science article. What percentage of R&D research in Canada is truly part of Popper's open society? Also, be familiar with recent issues surrounding 'whistleblower' legislation.
11.Plot a graph of the 'Accumulation of Scientific Knowledge v Time". Be able to justify your answer.
12. Using the Life-on-Mars article, find four examples from that article which suggest that the process of science can be imperfect.
13. Consider how science's (and society's) use of imaging technology to produce information can be hermeneutical. Give at least three good examples of this 'technoconstruction'.
14. What is chance biology? Be able to intelligently relate the corpus callosum research suggesting this idea. Be able to answer the article questions. Also, how may results in cloning animals interfere with results obtained by human twin studies?
15. What does iatrogenic mean? What problems may there be with reporting of statistics about iatrogenesis and therefore difficulties in fixing the problem?
16. What are some of the scientific and political difficulties in protecting the public from the cosmetics industry?
17. Discuss how political or societal pressures may influence grants given to scientists. Also understand the difference between applied and basic science.
18. Conferences are often an effective forum for scientific debate. How may some conferences show problems of knowledge?
19. Read the TWO articles on the website which relate to the issues of MARKETING TO DOCTORS and ADVERTISING BY pharmaceutical drug companies.
20. Read the article about clinical trials. What groups are often left out of clinical trials?
21. What is the shift in thinking about microRNA?