scientific explanation
Evidence-based understanding
A scientific explanation accounts for a phenomenon by identifying causal mechanisms or natural laws that produce it.
Unlike mere description, explanation answers why or how something occurs: The scientific explanation for rainbows involves light refraction through water droplets.
Good scientific explanations generate testable predictions and can be revised when new evidence emerges.
- empiricismKnowledge through observation
- experimentationSystematic testing of ideas
- controlled experimentTest isolating one variable
- double blindStudy hiding group assignments
- falsifiabilitySusceptibility to disproof
rationalism · theory · law · paradigm · principle · observation · thought experiment · hypothesis · null hypothesis · mechanism · cause and effect · modeling · causality · education · measurement · coherence · inference · simulation
scientific explanationmyth
Traditional explanatory tale
superstition · magical thinking · folk belief · mysticism · pseudoscience
scientific explanationspeculation
Unproven theorizing or risky investment
conjecture · guesswork · hearsay · rumor · anecdote
scientific explanationintuition
Instinctive immediate understanding
instinct · superstitious belief · conspiracy theory · delusion · fantasy
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