What is the common sense view of science? In the first four chapters of this book, the statement "science is derived from facts" is critically analyzed. Throughout the book, this statement's meaning changes slightly. Facts are statements about the world that can be sensed. Facts are neither per...

What is the US Epidemiology Catchment Area (ECA) study? The ECA study was the first major epidemiological study (1991) on alcohol and drug problems in different communities. twenty thousand people in various American states were interviewed personally. A standardized interview which identi...

In every developed country people come into contact with alcohol. A minority of the population also comes into contact with other narcotics. Some people develop an addiction, others do not. Someone has an addiction when they have difficulty controlling substance use, when they are&nbs...

How to construct a scientific text? It is extremely important that a scientific text has a good structure. Topics must follow each other logically. Because a scientific text is often long, it always consists of different sections, which are divided further into paragraphs. A section covers one ...

What is a literature review? In a literature review you, as a scientist, describe in an informative way what you have to say about a certain subject. You describe a conclusion that you have drawn on the basis of scientific literature. In the text you try to convince readers of your views and co...

Preface The first chapters deal with the fact that scientific knowledge is derived from facts, how these facts can be established and its criticisms. This chapter deals with the derivation of theory and science from those facts.   The interpretation that scientific knowledge is formed by first ...

What is the meaning of relevant facts? Reliable facts can be established by careful use of the senses. Science does not need 'just' facts, but relevant facts. These facts should come to us in the form of experimental results and not as observable facts - a large number of facts that can be dete...

Perception: passive and private or active and public? Passive perception is the view that one only has to open one's eyes or just look at something to see. This is a private matter because the meaning is interpreted for oneself. This is an unreliable conception of perception. Observation t...