CHEM 20A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Null Hypothesis, Reductionism, Karl Popper
6 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
No theory or law is ever proven, despite the amount of evidence. The traditional view makes an effort to prove something once and for all. Induction definition:forming a generalized conclusion from particular instances. No absolute truth can be derived from induction, and therefore nothing can be proven through science. One exception can disprove a law and make it invalid. i. e. all swans are white. A black swan was found, proving the statement invalid. In order to be scientific, theories or branches of knowledge must be refutable by evidence. Anything that is not refutable by evidence, such as pseudoscience, is not scientific. Laws and theories can be refuted and proven to be invalid. Rather than attempt to prove a hypothesis, popper suggests that we should instead attempt to disprove it. (null hypothesis) Until a theory is disproven, it is temporarily accepted. The way that science progresses is by disproving theories and discarding invalid information.
