SCIE 326 UNIT 1-8 FOR MIDTERM FINAL EXAM

SCIE 326 UNIT 1-8 FOR MIDTERM FINAL EXAM

(ACTUAL 2025/2026) COMPLETE GUIDE WITH

QUESTIONS AND VERIFIED ANSWERS

ATHABASCA UNIVERSITY

State three significant differences between the scientific and religious approaches to the world. - <<<>>- Science attempts to bring coherence to our experiences while religion attempts to infuse our experiences with meaning.-Science is conveyed in terms which can be precisely defined and described to someone else. Religious experiences are often private or individual and a person might be incapable of conveying the real experience.-Science is concerned with discovering new and improved ways of understanding the world and is continually subject to revision in light of new ideas or evidence. Religion is concerned with knowing eternal truths and are not subject to revision

Write a short essay (300-500 words) discussing Jacob Bronowski's statement, "[Y]ou cannot know what is true unless you behave in certain ways."[145] - <<<>>One must behave in certain ways in order to get an unbiased and truthful view of the world. If one only sees a certain point of view or uses only one conceptual framework, then one could be missing out on half the picture.A good analyst will (temporarily at least) adopt both or multiple conceptual frameworks to determine if the world 1 / 4

outlook changes. This will help the person make an informed decision about all possible outlooks or choices while not forcing the person to immediately or permanently change their point of view. If a person stays static in a certain frame of mind or works only within a particular frame of reference, the person will (potentially) learn something false from the world.

Write a short essay (300-500 words) discussing Darwin's statement, "[A]ll observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service."[146] - <<<>>(insert here)

What are the three basic mythico-magical assumptions about the world? - <<<>>Nature is capricious, the unknown is unknowable. Everything is determined by external, willful powers. The future can be controlled by magic.

Find three examples of mythico-magical thinking in the world today (e.g., from news stories, television or popular belief systems). - <<<>>Organized religion would fit this description as they believe that everything is predetermined by the bible, can only be controlled by god and prayer etc. Online / over the phone psychics are another example. Palm readers. Tarot card readers.

The physicists Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont list four common abuses of science that are found in some areas of 2 / 4

new age and postmodern discourse. What are they? - <<<>>a. longwinded discussions of scientific theories with little or no understanding of the actual meaning of what is being discussed.

• taking natural science concepts and using them in the

humanities or social sciences with no rational or empirical justification to support the implied analogy.

• using technical scientific language in a context where it is

irrelevant.

• using scientific sounding language to talk nonsense.

Give a simple, one-sentence summary of this paragraph by the postmodern French sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard. - <<<>>Our complex, metastatic, viral systems, condemned to the exponential dimension alone (be it that of exponential stability or instability), to eccentricity and indefinite fractal scissiparity, can no longer come to an end. Condemned to an intense metabolism, to an intense internal metastasis, they become exhausted within themselves and no longer have any destination, any end, any otherness, any fatality. They are condemned, precisely, to the epidemic, to the endless excrescences of the fractal and not to the reversibility and perfect resolution of the fateful

Write a short essay (300-500 words) discussing the apparent contradiction between the idea that all science is carried out within, and hence is influenced by, a particular cultural 3 / 4

context, and the idea that science produces objective knowledge of the world. - <<<>>(insert here)

• List and describe the seven gestalt criteria for good form. -

<<<>>1 - Regularity: All other things being equal, a hypothesis that can be seen as an extension of already existing and accepted ideas is to be preferred to one that requires radical changes in these ideas

2 - Symmetry: All other things being equal, a hypothesis that

is symmetrically related to existing ideas is to be preferred.Examples include cases in which an idea that has been successful in one field of science is taken over into another field by analogy.

3 - Harmony: All other things being equal, a hypothesis that is

in harmony with, or resonates with, existing accepted ideas is to be preferred to one that does not, and an argument whose structure is harmonious with existing patterns of reasoning is to be preferred.

4 - Simplicity: All other things being equal, the simpler

hypothesis or argument is to be preferred.

5 - Conciseness: All other things being equal, a concise

hypothesis/argument is to be preferred.

6 - Inclusiveness: All other things being equal, the hypothesis

that explains the most is to be preferred.

7 - Unity: Theories that provide a sense of closure, a unified

understanding of a field of phenomena, are to be sought as the goal of science.

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