In 2019, scientists discovered that terrestrial life succeeded after the nonavian dinosaurs became extinct around 65 million years ago. In the discovery, the scientists claimed that about 100,000 years after the extinction, the mammals' diversity nearly doubled, and their maximum body size also expanded. Scientists argue that the reason for this change could be that availability of more food after the dinosaurs went extinct led to increased diversity and body size (Montalvo, 2019). This scientific discovery can be viewed and assessed differently by those who hold rationalist, utilitarianism, and positivist views.
The rationalist paradigm views reason as a major source of knowledge. The concept of priori of truths in this paradigm can be used to assess this discovery. This concept posits that something can be known independently of any particular evidence or experience and if there are no observations or experiments that can be conducted to determine if a statement or a hypothesis is either true or false. In relation to the discovery on the improvement of terrestrial life after the extinction of the dinosaurs, the rationalists might view it to be true as, at the moment, there is no concrete reasoning behind the doubling in diversity and body size of the mammals.
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On the other hand, the utilitarianism view argues that actions are right if they are beneficial to the majority. If an action serves the majority's interests and makes them happy, then it is the right action (Driver, 2014). Those who hold this view might support the K-Pg extinction event that is thought to be the main cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Utilitarianism might reason that if the event caused the extinction of just a few dinosaurs compared to many other left species, then it would be justified for them to be wiped off for the rest of the terrestrial life to experience increased diversity.
The positivist view is based on confirmation of hypothesis and arguments by using empirical research and statistical methods. Therefore, a concept can only be recognized and considered legitimate if it can be scientifically proven (Outhwaite, 2015). Before the positivists recognize the argument fronted by the team of scientists, they would need evidence of extensive research that led to this conclusion. The positivists may also question why terrestrial life improved despite many plant species becoming extinct. The reason behind this question is due to the fact that reduced availability of food leads to a decline in life diversity.
References
Driver, J. (2014). The History of Utilitarianism. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/utilitarianism-history/
Montalvo, M. (2019). 10 Popular Scientific Discoveries from 2019 . https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2019/12/31/10-popular-scientific-discoveries-2019/
Outhwaite, W. (2015). Positivism, Sociological . Newcastle University. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.32110-9
