There is only one thing you really need to become a successful scientist. Imagination. Without imagination, William Harvey, would not have discovered the greatest circulation. Without imagination, Albert Einstein, would not have developed the theory of relativity. Now, you do have imagination, don't you? So, you can make scientific discoveries as well. Let's try to find out what the scientist in you is going to discover in the near future. My name is Tim Dumais, and I'm a university lecturer in Theoretical Philosophy here at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. My domains includes, epistemology and philosophy of science. I'm focusing, more specifically on the pivotal role that imagination and creativity play in knowledge production in general, and in scientific progress in particular. In this Mooc, I will take you on a journey and guide you through the process of developing, thoughtfully and imaginatively, your own research question. The process of defining critically and creatively your own problem. So, I'm afraid that in this Mooc, you can't just sit back and relax and watch the show, you will have to work, you will have to put your imagination, to work. Suppose that you open your refrigerator and that you find a bowling ball in its. You start to wonder. What the, Beep. Am I hallucinating? Who has put the bowling ball in my refrigerator. Was it Romey or Stephen? Or Chris?. And whoever put it there, Why? Why on earth, in my refrigerator. I need a beer. Oh no. I only have a bowling ball. Instantaneously, this unexpected observation makes you wonder, it triggers you to look for an explanation. And as soon as you start to think of possible answers. For instance, that someone might have put the bowling ball in your refrigerator on purpose, new questions pop up. You feel the need for a full satisfactory explanation. If indeed someone has put the bowling ball in your refrigerator on purpose, you also need to know, who did it and why? Like philosophy, science also originates in wonder. In finding something odd or unexpected and asking questions about it, looking for an explanation of it, an explanation that changes what was unexpected into something that in retrospect, was expectable after all. So, there is a productive dynamic relation between coming up with possible answers and asking further questions. But, what allows us to come up with possible explanations in the first place? Hypothesis formation, the process of inferring possible explanations from observations or data is not called deduction or induction but abduction. It's a very important kind of inference because it allows us to solve problems and basically solving problems is what we are doing all the time. It's not only Sherlock Holmes solving a murder case or a doctor inferring the disease that explains the patient's symptoms, or a scientist discovering a new planets which can explain, observe perturbations in the orbit of another already discovered planets, it is what all of us do, most if not all the time. Finding a bowling ball in your refrigerator is so odd that it triggers you to look for an explanation. But, scientists often ask questions about very common phenomena. So, how then can science like philosophy originate in wonder? That's because, more often than not, scientists do not discover but rather create or define oddities. Suppose that you open your refrigerator and that this time you do not find a bowling ball in it but as usual, many beers. Although, you expected to find many beers, you can ask questions about it by specifying what you find odd. For instance, the psychologist in you might ask, why do people buy beverages which they know to be unhealthy? Or the population scientists or behavioral economist in you might ask, what would be the most effective policy to bring down the alcohol related mortality rate? Etc.. One effective way to define a scientific problem in such a way that it really triggers and facilitates solutions, is to use contrast or comparisons. If scientists ask why questions, they can specify what exactly they want to explain by referring to actual or imagined comparison situation. For instance, a Historian might ask, why did the Western Roman Empire fall in 476? But then, as the historiography of the fall of the Roman Empire shows, there are endlessly many factors that should be taken into account. If however, the Historian asks the question, why did the Western Roman Empire unlike the Eastern Roman Empire fall in 476? Or why did its fall in 476 but not in 283? She has narrowed down the number of causal candidates significantly. Now, it's your turn. Firstly, get inspired in assignment 1A, by the diversity of imaginative research questions asked by the scientists in the might of the universe. Subsequently, make assignments 1B and start developing your wonder into a research question.
