philosophy

History of soil geography in the context of scale

Categories of cartographic scale correspond to the selection of environmental soil predictors used to initially create historical soil maps. Paradigm shifts in soil mapping and classification can be best explained by not only their correlation to historical improvements in scientific understanding, but also by differences in purpose for mapping, and due to advancements in geographic technology. Although the hierarchy of phenomena scales observed in this study is generally known in pedology today, it also represents a new view on the evolution of soil science. Read More

29 June 2016

The Cycle of Science

In an earlier post I contrasted induction and deduction while suggesting that induction is the currently… Read More

17 August 2014

Is It ‘Deduction’ or ‘Induction’, My Dear Watson?

Sherlock Holmes often talks about ‘deductive reasoning’ but was he really using deduction or induction? Although by definition these two approaches appear to be opposites,… Read More

21 June 2014

Is It a Scientific Theory or Hypothesis?

This is a common question addressing a popular misconception about how science classifies the knowledge that it has accumulated. The levels of hypothesis to theory… Read More

25 May 2014

The Scientific Method: Does Anybody Really Use It?

It can be hard to match what we learned about the scientific method in school with the scientific literature being published. There are a variety… Read More

16 April 2014

What is Science?

For my first blog post, it makes sense to start with the basics. And one of the most fundamental concepts for a researcher to establish… Read More

5 April 2014