Karl Popper's Theory Of Falsification Between Science And Science
Karl Popper came up with his theory of falsification as an alternative means to native inductivism so as to differentiate between science and non-science (Ladyman, 2002, p. 64). A hypothesis has to be falsifiable before it can be considered to be scientific. This means that there must be a possibility that exists, such that the hypothesis can be proven wrong by observational or experimental results that contradict it (Chalmers, 1999, p. 62).
The main features of falsification are with regards to conjectures and refutations made by scientists.
Conjectures made should be specific and should encompass many aspects of the field. They should not be vague claims that can be used to explain and substantiate any and every conceivable situation. Take
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This means that the predictions made by scientists should be contrary to the popular and widely accepted theories at that time. An example of such a conjecture comes from the theories that Copernicus came up with. In his time, the governing body of science was the Catholic Church and their teachings were therefore commonly regarded as the truth. One of their teachings included the geocentric model, which states that the Earth is stationary at the center of the known universe, with the Sun and other planets revolving around it. Copernicus went against this, coming up with the heliocentric model instead. He claimed that the Sun was at the center of our universe, with the Earth and other planets revolving around it. His claims seemed highly improbable, especially when compared to the Church’s teachings and the observations made by others of his time, thus it was considered to be bold and risky (Chalmers, 1999, p. …show more content…
One such example is existential statements. Many scientific theories make claims based on the existence of objects like undiscovered planets as well as phenomena such as black holes and dark matter. Presently, we may not be able to find prove that such objects or phenomena exist. Even so, we are unable to conclusively determine that these objects or phenomena do not exist (Ladyman, 2002, p. 82). It may simply be a case of the lack of appropriate levels of technology. As a result, we are unable to falsify such statements because the lack of evidence does not equate to the non-existence of said objects or
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