Title: 
Headings: Post-lecture Questions I.1 – Psychology as an Empirical Science
Post-lecture
 
Questions
 
I.1
 
–
 
Psychology
 
as
 
an
 
Empirical
 
Science
 

Content: As
 
mentioned
 
before,
 
we
 
must
 
agree
 
on
 
the
 
facts. We
 
can
 
argue
 
about
 
their
 
meaning
 
or
 
implications
 
–
 
in
 
terms
 
of
 
which
 
theories
 
are
 
supported
 
or
 
ruled
 
out
 
–
 
but
 
we
 
must
 
agree
 
on
 
the
 
facts. Weak
  
determinism
  
is
  
just
  
the
  
idea
  
that
  
events
  
have
  
causes. No-one
  
(I
  
hope)
  
has
  
a
  
problem
  
with
  
this. Strong
 
determinism
  
is
  
the
  
idea
  
that
  
if
  
you
  
knew
  
everything
  
(that
  
was
 
relevant),
  
then
  
you
  
could
  
predict
  
exactly
  
what
 
will
 
happen
 
next. A
 
lot
 
of
 
people
 
seem
 
to
 
think
 
that
 
science
 
assumes
 
strong
 
determinism,
 
but,
 
ever
 
since
 
quantum
 
theory
 
appeared
  
(and
  
the
  
Heisenberg
  
Uncertainty
  
Principle,
  
in
  
particular),
  
most
  
scientists
  
don’t
 
(or,
  
at
  
least,
  
shouldn’t)
 
assume
  
this. This
  
brings
 
us
  
to
  
the
  
middle-ground
  
idea: stochastic
  
determinism
  
is
  
a
  
slight
  
step
  
back
  
from
  
strong
 
determinism,
 
but
 
it’s
 
more
 
specific
 
than
 
weak
 
determinism. It
 
doesn’t
 
claim
 
that
 
you
 
can
 
predict
 
exactly
 
what
 
will
 
happen
 
next
 
(even
 
if
 
you
 
knew
 
everything
 
that
 
was
 
relevant),
 
but
 
it
 
does
 
allow
 
you
 
to
 
make
 
probabilistic
 
statements
 
about
 
what
 
will
 
happen
 
next. In
 
fact,
 
you
 
can
 
specify
 
the
 
entire
 
distribution
 
of
 
next
 
events,
 
which
 
is
 
a
 
fancy
 
way
 
of
 
saying
 
that
 
you
 
can
 
assign
 
a
 
probability
 
to
 
every
 
possibility.