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Discuss and evaluate the ways in which the beliefs of researchers might count as evidence for or against their results.
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In the different fields of knowledge including areas of natural sciences, mathematics and history (humanities?), a belief that a knower has, often affects their results, in turn acting as evidence against their results. A belief is defined as a firm opinion or an acceptance of a thing, fact or statement with trust or confidence . It is likely that all researchers possess a belief about the specific subject being researched. (“evidence for” might imply a discussion of fundamentalism where the belief is the evidence for example: I believe God made the world in 6 days – How do you know? Because the Bible tells me so. How do you know the Bible is true? Because it is inspired by God. How do you know is inspired? Because it says so in the Bible! Most religious fundamentalists are like this with their various scriptures. There can be fundamentalists in fields of study where appeal is made to things like “all historians believe” or political correctness or received scientific opinion.) Convention (and widely held belief within society) stipulates that to produce reliable and credible scientific results and knowledge a degree of objectivity is required. This has the implication that if a scientific researcher has a strong opinion towards the chosen area of study then the results and subsequent theories developed should be treated with caution. However, the fundamental issue involved with the discussion of the role of the belief revolves around how that belief is used within the research. A preliminary belief of a researcher is essential in the establishment of the hypothesis. A belief is the initial fuelling for the scientific investigation, without assumed ideas, or propositions a hypothesis does not exist, and scientific research will consequently not occur. In this respect, the initial belief of the researcher neither counts for nor against the results as it is an essential part in the formation of the hypothesis and further research stems from that belief and also creates motivation to scientifically prove (or ideally disprove also) the belief. The acceptance that a belief may not be able to be proved or there may be evidence contrary to that belief is key when establishing whether the belief should count as evidence against the results. If a scientific researcher has the ability to dismiss or amend their belief when sufficient results have been collected then the initial belief does not count against the results, as scientific knowledge and beliefs are constantly changing as new evidence is gathered and features of science mean that it is (2 sentences) both progressive and correctable.
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