NS 310 Science and Science Fiction Spring 2007

SAMPLE QUIZ

Name____________________________

Science and the History of Science

(1) Whose writings on logic and rhetoric dominated western philosophy from about 300 B.C. until the Enlightenment?

Aristotle

(2) How did Newton’s “laws” of nature differ from Aristotle’s?

Aristotle believed in a hierarchal or stratified cosmos; Newton’s “laws” were universal.

(3) In class I said that science is a “reproducible” discourse. What does this mean?

In principle, anyone can go out and reproduce the recipe (the experiment or observation)

(4) Is logic and argument all that science needs? If not, what else?

Reproducible or repeatable experiment and/or observation

(5) Define “falsifiability”.

A theory that can be proven false.