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PHILOSOPHY OF CONCENSUS: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Falsification
as a principle or theory which holds that for any hypothesis to be cognitively
significant, true or scientific it must be inherently disprovable by experience
before it can be accepted as a scientific hypothesis or theory. This principle
is associated with the twentieth century Austrian- British Philosopher of
science known as Sir Karl, Raimund Popper. Science is a discipline that is
interested in trying to uncover or discover truths about nature; our natural
environment and the world at large, this is why Archibong conceives science as
the systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about the universe by
organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories” (89).
These laws and theories are used to give explanations to natural occurrences
and make further predictions about the future.
Scientific
method is procedural, that is, it adheres strictly to laid down principles
through which an objective knowledge is obtained. It is widely accepted that
empirical science is that discipline which employs inductivism in the
formulation of hypotheses or theories by observing a limited number of
instances. Induction therefore becomes accepted by some scientists
(inductivists) as a valuable method and practice in the scientific enterprise.
On the basis
of this method of doing science Popper saw it problematic to accept since. It
relied on an equally problematic principle of verifiability for the
determination of its truth. The verifiability theory states that statements are
cognitively significant or empirically testable if they are conclusively
verifiable by experience. Popper rejected this inductivists’ criterion of truth
because it does not adequately provide a distinguishing feature between
scientific and non-scientific statements and on the reason that a theory can
never be proven to be true by accumulating more and more positive observations.
Hence, his
postulation of the falsification theory as a better alternative for the
criterion of science. The falsification theory states that a statement is
meaningful or scientific if it is
falsifiable by experience or observation.
This work
will therefore be concerned with the analysis and a critical examination of
Karl Popper’s falsification theory.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Popper
summits that the more a theory is falsified, the more it becomes scientific. By
this, every scientific theory must be such that it can be refuted. This
position is founded upon Popper’s quest to demarcate science from
pseudo-science. Although the position looks plausible, there are problems that
are associated with it. These can be noted thus;
What happens with theories that are
falsified?
If scientific hypothesis or theories are
conjectures, why do they need refutation?
Should scientists abandon a theory because
facts contradict it?
All these
are problems that revolve around Popper’s theory of falsification.
1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY
The study
aims at re-examining the method of arriving at scientific truth, the problem
that are inherent in it and why Popper debunked it and opted for a better
method or theory. It further seeks to establish whether or not Popper’s
falsification theory is a better alternative or substitute for testing the
truth of scientific statements.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study is
significant because the notion of truth in science is sometimes arrived at by
hasty or faulty generalizations; thus, what is believed to be the truth in
science; that is, scientific truth, often turn out to be false or probable.
Hence, to remove the obstacles that hinder or disrupt scientific truth, we must
examine Popper’s falsification principle to see if it can aid scientists to
know the truth.
1.5 METHOD OF THE STUDY
This is a
philosophical research work; since philosophy is always critical in its
outlook, we shall therefore employ the methods of analysis, speculation and
criticism to the study at hand in order to have a wholistic understanding.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This
research work does not incorporate the entire works of Karl Popper, it only
deals with a section of his philosophy which is in the area of philosophy of
science and it will also be limited to a critique of his “falsification theory”
as an alternative theory of testing the truth of scientific statements.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
The
Falsification Principle: A theory is falsifiable if it is capable of
conflicting with observable phenomena or events. Delanty and Strydom opine that
“falsifiability is a principle which states that “it must be possible for an
empirical/scientific system to be refuted by experience” (44). Thus, a good
scientific theory or statement must be capable of being falsified or refuted by
conceivable events; if there are no empirical means of refuting the theory, it
implies that it is not scientific and should be abandoned or rejected.
Induction:
Traditionally, induction is viewed as an argument which proceeds from
particular instances to general conclusion. “It is an argument in which a
particular conclusion is derived from certain premises from the report of specific
observation” Aigbodioh (142). It is further described as that which give the
premise(s) a supportive evidence for the truth of the conclusion to be
accepted. Mautners defined induction as “inference from a finite number of
particular cases to a further case or to a general conclusion” (273).
Verisimilitude:
This term simply means truth content, approximation to truth or nearer to the
truth. It was used by Karl Popper to explain that science cannot know or
discover the “truth”, but it can only be closer to the truth.
The
Verifiability Principle: The verifiability principle emphasizes that “for a
sentence to have “cognitive”, “factual”, “descriptive”, or “literal” meaning,
it must express a statement that could be shown to be true or false in principle
or to be probable by inference to empirical observations. (Donald, 569). For
Aja, “the principle of verification claims that any meaningful proposition, in
respect of its truth, must be verifiable, meaningful or assert matters of fact,
it must be tested empirically or experientially” (11). This criterion of
meaning emphasizes that for a statement to be scientifically meaningful or to
assert matter of fact, it must be testable empirically or experientially.
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