The care of a house, the conduct of a home, the management of children, the instruction and government of servants, are as deservi...ng of scientific treatment and scientific professors and lectureships as are the care of farms, the management of manure and crops, and the raising and care of stock.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Let us say, then, that both the realist and the antirealist accept the results of scientific investigations as "true," on a par wi...th more homely truths.... And call this acceptance of scientific truths the "core position." What distinguishes realists from antirealists, then, is what they add onto this core position ... a third alternative emerges--and an attractive one at that. It is the core position itself, and all by itself.... Let me introduce the acronym NOA (pronounced as in "Noah"), for natural ontological attitude, and, henceforth, refer to the core position under that designation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The conclusion suggested by these arguments might be called the paradox of theorizing. It asserts that if the terms and the genera...l principles of a scientific theory serve their purpose, i. e., if they establish the definite connections among observable phenomena, then they can be dispensed with since any chain of laws and interpretive statements establishing such a connection should then be replaceable by a law which directly links observational antecedents to observational consequents.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Let us note here that the same formal analysis ... applies to scientific prediction as well as to explanation. The difference betw...een the two is of a pragmatic character. If E is given, i.e., if we know that the phenomenon described by E has occurred, and a suitable set of statements C1, C2, ... Ck, L1, L2, ... Lr is provided afterwards, we speak of an explanation of the phenomenon in question. If the latter statements are given and E is derived prior to the occurrence of the phenomenon it describes, we speak of a prediction.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed... of great means of influence and yet who employs those faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion--I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice--there is no standard higher than the assent of the relevant community. To disc...over how scientific revolutions are effected, we shall therefore have to examine not only the impact of nature and of logic, but also the techniques of persuasive argumentation effective within the quite special groups that constitute the community of scientists.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The great scientific achievements are research programmes which can be evaluated in terms of progressive and degenerative problems...hifts; and scientific revolutions consist of one research programme superceding (overtaking in progress) another. This methodology offers a new rational reconstruction of science.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable; and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does ...not speak about reality.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted, o...r does it necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The success of current scientific theories is no miracle. It is not even surprising to the scientific (Darwinist) mind. For any sc...ientific theory is born into a life of fierce competition, a jungle red in tooth and claw. Only the successful theories survive--the ones which in fact latched on to the actual regularities in nature.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »