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— Why a Scientific Theory Cannot be Proven True
Science makes no proclamations about truth! Science provides us with the best model that fits all the available evidence.
Evidence for a proposition P is that which makes it evident that P is true, such as a collection of facts positively indicative of and exclusively concordant with only one hypothesis over any other.
Fact = indisputable points of data, which are objectively verifiable.
Hypothesis = a testable, demonstrable, falsifiable, and verifiable proposition or explanation.
Theory = a framework of explanations encompassing scientific models, laws, and hypotheses; or a well-tested and repeatedly confirmed hypothesis.
The logic of science is based on inductive generalizations of the descriptive laws of nature: knowledge based on probability.
Deduction deals with knowledge that can be known for certain. If the premises of a valid argument are in fact true, then the conclusion necessarily and inescapably follows.
On the other hand, inductive arguments can be either strong or weak (strongly or weakly supported by the evidence). A strong inductive argument cannot guarantee the truth of its conclusion, unlike a valid and sound deductive argument, which is truth-preserving.
Inductive arguments have more information in the conclusion than is available is the premises — knowledge ampliative!
P1. In the past, the future has always been like the past (nature, thus far, has been uniform).
C. Therefore, in the future, the future will be like the past (nature will be uniform in the future).
Notice how this argument cannot guarantee its conclusion (with certainty).
The logic of science is based on inductive inferences and falsification (falsifiability criterion).
A scientific statement is one which can (potentially) be falsified!
“All swans are white” can be falsified if there were a single non-white swan. — therefore, it is a scientific statement.
No amount of confirmatory evidence in the form of a lots of white swan can guarantee that all swans are indeed white.
This is why a scientific theory cannot be proven true: it can merely fail to be rejected, and of course, it can be proven false.
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