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Do Theories Have to be Testable to be Scientific?
In article ,
Bob wrote: As others have noted -- and shown! -- the terms hypothesis and theory are not used consistently. But "officially", in the context of formal discussion of that somewhat abstract notion of "scientific method", a theory is something that is generally well accepted (meaning that it has been tested). Also note that it does not convey "understanding" why it is true. theory -- An attempt to explain a certain class of phenomena by deducing them as necessary consequences of other phenomena regarded as more primitive and less in need of explanation. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 2nd Ed. There was never a need to refer to the special hypothesis of relativity. Whether tested or not, or even wrong, a theory is as described above. It is the collection of postulates and definitions from which predictions of the real world are to be derived. An untested theory is a theory that hasn't been tested, a theory that is proven wrong is still a theory, it's just a theory that's wrong. Hypotheses, in a sense, are a larger class of propositions, since many hypotheses can be formed that could never become a theory, but any theory can be used as an hypothesis. And a proposition can be theory and hypothesis at the same time. -- "When fighting with sharpened Bronze, or harder Metals from the Heavens, it is Wise to kick thy Opponent, be he a Chaldean or a man of Uruk, in his Man Sack, that thou mayst defeat him more handily than by Arms. So sayeth INNAMURUTUSHIMMILODEK, who hath slain threescore Ammelekites." |
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