It is vitally important to use theory for informing practice, while practice would further inform theory, making the statement that a good theory is, in fact, practically true.
5.
Benedict Spinoza, a post-Cartesian philosopher in the 17th century, held ideas of which many are still applicable to research and knowledge today (Dutton, 2005). One of these is his assertion about facts and theory. Specifically, the philosopher said: "if the facts conflict with the theory, either the theory must be changed or the facts." In practice this means that the concept of "facts" are not necessarily as static as the word suggests. Facts can change if the theory that conflicts with them is stronger than facts that have been proven by previous theory. New theories are continuously created and hypothesized. Which means that facts can change according to the theories created. However, the fact that theories are hypothesized means that they first need to undergo rigorous testing before a proven fact can be changed. One example of this may be the previously believed "fact" that the earth is flat and had a physical end. Today, this fact has been proven incorrect by theories that have proven stronger than the facts.
6.
Deductive reasoning is a logical process of reaching a conclusion by means of using a known general premise or a known fact. One example of this is using a known premise and a known fact that can be joined to form a logical conclusion. Specifically, one may use the premise that "all cats are animals" and combine it with...
Here, conclusions are also drawn, but the basis for doing so is different. Observations of particular facts are used to draw these conclusions. The certainty of the fact is therefore dependent upon what is observed rather than what is known as universal fact. One might therefore establish a general position such as "All students that have ever been observed carry books on a Tuesday, and therefore all students carry books on a Tuesday." This is not necessarily the truth, since not all students everywhere have always been observed and the general premise may not be true for all of them. The general conclusion is, however, based on an
observation that has been made and remains true until observation proves it to be untrue.
References
Anderson, R., Moore, T., Nagaraja, S., and Ozment, a. (2007, May 23). Incentives and
Information Security. Retrieved from: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/book-chapter-agt-1.pdf
Dutton, B.D. (2005, Jul. 7). Benedict Spinoza. Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. Retrieved from: http://www.iep.utm.edu/spinoza/
Vansteenkiste, M. And Sheldon, K.M. (2006). There's nothing more practical than a good theory: Integrating motivational interviewing and self-determination theory. British Journal of
Clinical Psychology, Vol. 45. Retrieved from: http://www.self-determinationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2006_VansteenkisteSheldon_BJCP.pdf
