The Nature of Scientific Progr

It is a common misconception that science progresses when a correct theory replaces a wrong one. The process is better described as the replacement of a wrong theory with a less wrong theory. However, before even beginning to understand how this can happen, one must examine the criterion that is used to judge a correct theory from an incorrect one. Determining whether a theory is “true” or “false” is a never-ending process; that is, a theor

Any model of scientific progression begins with the formation of a hypothesis that challenges a tacitly accepted theory. Michael Shermer said that "creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting point and its rich environment.” New theories of this kind can be formed when a scientist begins to look at the situation from a new perspective. Many times no new facts or experiments are initially introduced, rather the same old facts are interpreted in a new and different way. This allows us to occasionally break through the cultural limitations of our time with far reaching consequences for both society and science. It is this kind of progress that promotes the evolution of both science and culture.

y can never be conclusively falsified or proven to be the absolutely true. A theory is usually accepted as valid when it is proven by numerous experimental tests and there is no other theory that explains the phenomena better. The more tests that back up the theory the more confidence is placed in its truth. However, one can never be certain that there will not come a time in the future where a test will show that the theory does not apply in all cases. Newton’s laws of motion, for example, were proved by every possible experiment for almost 250 years. The confidence in the theory was so high that it was hard to imagine that it was not the absolute truth. In the late nineteenth century, however, experiments on small objects and fast moving bodies showed that Newton’s laws did not always apply. The absolute truth is like an asymptote, you can get closer and closer to it but never really reach it. In the end, it is impossible to prove a theory to be absolutely, without a doubt, correct.

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