Category Archives: Theory & Inference Course

Given the break from abstraction provided by week 6’s review of exemplars, we dove back into abstraction for the final two weeks of the Theory section of the course.  For week seven we first covered the concept of scale (usually … Continue reading →

For week 6 of the Scientific Inquiry–Theory & Inference seminar  we wanted to put some flesh on the abstract skeletal structure we had covered thus far in the course.  So we had them read a bunch of work that does some … Continue reading →

The first four weeks of my Scientific Inquiry–Theory & Inference course covers being successful in graduate school, human knowledge (ontology/epistemology, and what is science?), and week one of the theory section explores the purpose of theory.  Week five provides two … Continue reading →

The fourth week of my Scientific Inquiry–Theory & Inference course addresses the question “Why should we theorize,” or “What is the purpose of theory.”  It is the first of a four week section on “Theory.”  The Gordian Knot problem rears its … Continue reading →

Having addressed negotiating grad school and reality, perception and human knowledge, week 3 of my new course, Scientific Inquiry–Theory & Inference,[1] tackles the demarcation problem: what is (non)science?  We might begin with motivating question: What can explain the explosion in … Continue reading →

As I explain here, this course seeks to provide first year PhD students who want to join the scientific community the basic training they require.[1]  Rather than use the first week of the semester as a chance to “pass out the … Continue reading →