PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

NAME: Philomon Kani

College: St Stephen’s College

Q 1. What is a good scientific theory according to Popper and Kuhn?

According to Popper the aim of science is to give a satisfactory explanation
for those that stand in need of any explanation. And the scientific theory put
forward to explain a certain phenomenon must logically entail the explicandum
(the thing that is to be explained) and the scientific theory must be true even
after putting it to the most critical test. And the explanation given in the
scientific theory should not be circular. A scientific theory must be able to
withstand any critical test and it should have a variety of testable consequences
and these and this variety of test which is independent from the explanation is
what Popper calls as the independent evidence. And one more addition that
Popper puts in is that the scientific theory should make use of universal
statements or laws of nature because universal statements are statements with
rich content and they may be independently tested everywhere and at all times.
Thus according to Popper a scientific theory must be testable or falsifiable and
should make use of universal laws with certain initial condition. According to
Popper, the higher the degree of falsifiability the better the scientific theory.
Popper calls those sciences as Pseudo science that cannot be put to verification
and he refers to magic and astrology as pseudoscience. And for Popper one
falsification is enough to refute a whole scientific theory, so a good scientific
theory must be able to withstand any critical test. Popper says that there is a
logical asymmetry between verifiability and falsification. According to Popper
science is in a state of perpetual revolution i.e. anomalies keeps on arising in a
good scientific theory.
Though Kuhn has some resemblance top Popper, his theory of good scientific
theory is different from that of Popper. Kuhn also agrees that anomalies arise in
a scientific theory and the good scientific theory is that which can withstand
these anomalies by undergoing some internal change. And according to Kuhn a
single falsification is not enough to refute a whole scientific theory because he
considers that a scientific theory is intertwined with lot of other scientific
statements and the refutation of this scientific theory would mean the refutation
of the other true scientific statements as well. Kuhn makes a distinction between
prescience and science. He considers pre-science as the stage of science before
it could become a paradigm. And he considers magic and astrology as
prescience. According to Kuhn that science that is in a state of perpetual
revolution is not a good science but a abnormal science. For him a scientific
theory should be stable and be able to withstand any falsification. For Kuhn a
good science is a puzzle solver which is non-inductive and non-rational.

Q 2. What does a good scientist do when a theory is falsified/refuted according to

Popper and Kuhn?

For Popper a good scientist is the one who is always looking for anomalies
and trying to falsify a scientific theory. And once a theory is falsified, a good
scientist should engage in a paradigm shift and theorize a new scientific theory
and put it to critical test. Also once a scientific theory is falsified, a good scientist
after bringing forward a new theory should include some parts of the old theory
in the new theory. There has to be some connection between the old and the
new theory. Also a good scientist should never try and defend the old theory if it
is refuted. For Popper, scientist should not accept any background thesis as final.
 For Kuhn, a good scientist is the one who never gives up the scientific theory
and defends it under whatever condition possible. A scientist should have a
background theory only then observation is possible. A good scientist should
never look for anomalies and even if any arises, he should try and defend the
theory by making minor adjustments in the theory. A good scientist should not
refute the theory on the basis of a single falsification and for a good scientist
once the paradigm shifts, then the whole world changes.