Not just facts but relevant facts
- Which facts are relevant and which are not relevant to a science will be relative to the current state of development of that science.
- Many kinds of processes are at work in the world around us, and they are all superimposed on, and interact with each other in complicated ways.
- It is not possible to arrive at an understanding of these various processes by careful observation of events as they typically and naturally occur, it is necessary to do experiments
The production and updating of experimental results
- If experimental results constitute the facts on which science is based, then they are certainly not straightforwardly given via the senses
- Requires considerable know-how and practical trial and error as well as exploitation of the available technology
- Acceptability of experimental results is theory-dependent, and judgments in this respect are subject to changes as our scientific understanding develops
Experiment as an adequate basis for science
- however informed by theory an experiment is, there is a strong sense in which the results of an experiment are determined by the world and not by theories.
- We cannot make the outcomes conform to our theories.
Chapter 4 Deriving theories from the facts: induction
- Logical deduction alone cannot establish the truth of factual statements of the kind figuring in our examples. All that logic can offer in this connection is that if the premises are true and the argument is valid, then the conclusion must be true.
- Inductive arguments are general conclusions derived from a finite number of specific facts, distinct from logical, deductive arguments
- If inductive inference is to be justified the following conditions must be satisfied
1. The number of observations forming the basis of a generalization must be large
2. The observations must be repeated under a wide variety of conditions
3. No accepted observation statement should conflict with the derived law
Principle of Induction - If a large number of A's have been observed under a wide variety of conditions, and if all those A's without exception possess the property B, then all A's have the property B.
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