#1112 Angela Potochnik - Recipes for Science: An Introduction to Scientific Methods and Reasoning

Jun 19, 2025

Angela Potochnik, a philosophy professor and director at the Center for Public Engagement with Science, dives into the fascinating world of scientific methods. She discusses the crucial role of science in everyday life and the impact of public understanding on trust in scientific research. Potochnik explores the distinctions between experimental and non-experimental methods, emphasizing the importance of statistics and cognitive diversity in fostering robust inquiry. Her insights illuminate the interplay of science with social values and the creative process of scientific discovery.

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INSIGHT

Why Care About Science

Science is one of our best tools for gaining empirical knowledge about the world.
Understanding science helps us judge when scientific claims are trustworthy or deceptive.

INSIGHT

Why Public Opinion Lags

Scientific knowledge is often behind public opinion due to expertise division and communication challenges.
Politicization and social identity also contribute to lagging public scientific understanding.

INSIGHT

Limits of Science

Science generates empirical knowledge based on sensory data shared collectively.
It excels at answering questions empirical data can address directly or indirectly.

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Dr. Angela Potochnik is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Public Engagement with Science at the University of Cincinnati. Her research addresses the nature of science and its successes, the relationships between science and the public, and methods in science, especially population biology. She is the author of Idealization and the Aims of Science, and coauthor of Recipes for Science: An Introduction to Scientific Methods and Reasoning.

In this episode, we focus on Recipes for Science. We start by discussing why we should care about science, the limits of science, the demarcation problem, whether there is one single scientific method, and hypotheses and theories. We also talk about experimentation and non-experimental methods, scientific modeling, scientific reasoning, statistics and probability, correlation and causation, explanation in science, and scientific breakthroughs. Finally, we talk about how the social and historical context influences science, and we discuss whether science can ever be value-free.

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