Scientific Rating of the Disciplines

Paper Summary:

To determine whether or not a discipline was considered scientific, a survey at a university's undergraduate psychology department was performed. The results of this survey showed chemistry to be the most scientific and philosophy to be the least. The two disciplines are compared and contrasted. An objective assessment of the results of the survey is given. Includes a table.

From the Paper:

"If determinism can be considered an indicator of how scientific a discipline is, then it is not surprising that chemistry was considered the most scientific. In this science, the concept of statistical determinism may be more appropriate; this argument states that "events can be predicted, but only with a probability greater than chance" (Goodwin, p.7). Chemistry can be seen as being a cause and effect science, whereas philosophy, the discipline found to be the least scientific, does not fall neatly into this category. Philosophy depends a great deal on subjective responses to events or stimuli. Regardless of the approach taken by philosophers, the basic ideas in philosophy are often intangible, such as the concept of God, and therefore can be construed as unscientific."

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