PL SC 003 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Falsifiability, Unobservable, Scientific Method
Document Summary
Method by which to provisionally understand the world it can always the(cid:396)efo(cid:396)e (cid:271)e (cid:272)(cid:396)iti(cid:272)ized. What allows for criticism, is the fact that theories can (cid:271)e eithe(cid:396) (cid:396)ight o(cid:396) (cid:449)(cid:396)o(cid:374)g. theo(cid:396)ies also assu(cid:373)e that theo(cid:396)ies a(cid:396)e (cid:449)(cid:396)o(cid:374)g (cid:894)if the(cid:455)(cid:859)(cid:396)e (cid:374)ot (cid:449)(cid:396)o(cid:374)g i(cid:374) so(cid:373)e (cid:449)a(cid:455) the(cid:374) the(cid:455)(cid:859)(cid:396)e (cid:374)ot s(cid:272)ie(cid:374)tifi(cid:272)(cid:895). This is not to say that they will ever be falsified but the possibility that they can be needs to be kept open (essentially what it means to be able to test these theories). Non-falsifiable statements = tautology (something that is true by definition, for example: a triangle has a total of 180 degrees on the inside). This makes math essentially non-scientific because the bases of it is that stuff cannot be falsified (1+1=2). Unobservable phenomena (not a tautology): god exists etc. they cannot be falsified so it cannot be deemed scientific. Hypothesis (in relation to the models that are built to loosely test these hypotheses, the good ones will have many implications(cid:895).
