Philosophy 1200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 39: Falsifiability, Coherence Theory, Ignaz Semmelweis
6 Aug 2020
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Introduction to scientific reasoning (272) a case study (from carl hempel"s philosophy of natural science:3-6, summarized in hughes: 228-231) The vienna general hospital in the mid- 1800s had two maternity divisions. A much higher number of women in the first maternity division were contracting childbed fever, a serious and often fatal illness. Method used to solve the problem: clearly state the problem, form hypotheses that might answer the problem. Note that semmelweis did not test every hypothesis. He used the coherence theory as a preliminary test, since it is often too expensive or time consuming to test every hypothesis. If a hypothesis does not fit well with other accepted facts, we might reject it on those grounds. Of course, we might be wrong to do so. Science is fallible: attempt to obtain a single hypothesis by eliminating other candidates (known as inference to the best explanation). The method outlined above is known as the scientific method.
