PHL255H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Arthur Eddington, Atomic Theory, Prime Number
Document Summary
The objection to baconian induction is that theories contain terms, or make reference to, unobservable entities, but can never give you an answer for unobservable entities. The idea is that whenever you have a term that refers to an unobservable, treat it like an abbreviation. If all non-observational terms were all redefined in terms of observational terms, then this objection would not apply. You have two moves that are controversial in science; hasty generalizations given observational properties, and. Causal element: theories tell us about the causes of what we can observe. There"s something about this theory that goes beyond the redefinition. Generalizations say that things are always observed to show this pattern, but causes say that there"s something going on underneath the surface. The redefinition strategy tries to get away from that; nothing unobservable. The redefinition is observationally equivalent, but it does not tell us about the causes.
