Humans tend to be inquisitive by nature Essay Example

Humans tend to be inquisitive by nature Essay Example Humans tend to be inquisitive by nature Paper Humans tend to be inquisitive by nature Paper We tirelessly seek to know what we do not know and manipulate this gain in insight to aid us in further investigations. It is this strong desire that fuels studies in natural sciences as we attempt to provide explanations for the phenomenons we see. Similarly, the duty of historians does not stop at accounting events, they must also account for those events. Both of these fields require an individual to construct an description of what is perceived, and after applying logic to the situation, either a scientific or a historical explanation is to be formed, and this in turn serves as the model for human understanding of the world. Carriers of good explanations must be conscious of both the reality of the explanation as well as the audience he is conveying it to. In order for an explanation to be of value, it has to be withinin comprehension of the person seeking the answer. People living in the Sahara desert who have never seen ice before will be confounded when trying to grasp the idea of water solidifying. In this scenario, it would be inappropriate to explain to them the concept of ice using scientific terminology, they simply will not be able to understand. On the other hand, an explanation involving sand, cactuses and scorpions may cohere with their daily experience, yet it is not a solid explanation but merely fabrication. This constitutes the importance of both the reality and specificity of an explanation. A student who has been caught plagiarizing might answer to the teachers accusations It is much easier than to actual write a paper on your own. Not, for the teachers purposes, an adequate explanation. Carl Hempel was one of the most prominent philosophers of science in the twentieth century, and his covering law model, otherwise known as the deductive-nomological model, puts scientific explanations on the same reasoning footing as predictions; they are both deductive arguments. On the full understanding that science is not exclusive to natural sciences, for the purposes of this paper, I shall only discuss the formation and purpose of scientific explanations in one particular aspect of natural science, eclipses. According to Hempels deductive-nomological model, the explanation as to why eclipses occur can be reduced to a logical relationship between statements: the explanandum is a consequence of the explanans. This syllogistic method of reasoning forms the general law that eclipses occur when the Earth travels between the Sun and the Moon, and it requires an understanding of the fundamental scientific law that light always travels along straight lines. We can test the deduced general law on several occasions and under different circumstances, and it shall hold true for all trials. Implicitly, this means that scientific laws are not just tools to make predictions, but they are genuine statements that describe the world. Its accuracy allows us to extrapolate more general laws using the deduced law given its accuracy. Historical explanations may not allow such freedom in extrapolation, but the formation and purpose of one is quite similar to that of a scientific explanation, despite the rather widely held opinion is that in contrast to natural sciences, there exists no general laws in history which may govern the events. However, since well-established Causal laws are rarely found in history, laws in this field are sometimes regarded to as explanation sketches, which are vague and incomplete preliminary accounts leading to fully supported explanations like those in science. The formation of a historical explanation is largely based on the insight of the historian or social scientist. They formulate an analysis of the five elements involved in human actions which include aim, assessment of situation, choice of means, drive and context. A letter from the Vancouver School Board was recently issued to parents informing them of the school boards $7. 12 million funding deficit. Their aim prepare parents and students for any impact they might feel as a result of this deficit; their assessment is that a widespread knowledge of the budget may ease tension between parents valiantly pushing their children into already-cramped schools and the schools themselves; the drive is perhaps the desire of the trustee to keep their jobs; and the context is the declining enrollment, a provincial funding formula that does not fund annual cost increases and does not account for inflation. Many occurrences, past and present, may be explained this way, but events do not always turn out as planned, causing an explanation based on the insight of the researcher and the intent of the subject scrutinized may lack validity. One application of historical explanations is to foreshadow events, and to a certain extent, it gives warning while simultaneously achieving the role of reassurance. Most recently, there has been a rising anxiety in the economic situation of the world. Telltale signs of recession include a rise in unemployment, declining manufacturing output and declining personal incomes. Nevertheless, as countless people experience the implementations of the economic slump, there are those who do not see the need to be worried. Indeed, economic recessions and booms are components of a sine curve that inevitably turns down once in a while. In fact, there has been over seven recessions in the past 40 years, the longest of which lasted sixteen months and the shortest only six. People can rest assured that the world has been able to handle more severe recessions such as the one in the 1930s, and that the current one will peak into economic boom in due time.