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Studies in the Logic of Confirmation
One of the most controversial arguments made by Carl Hempel appeared in the article "Studies in the Logic of Confirmation" where he deduced that conditions under generalized events would be confirmed or disconfirmed by instances or non-instances. “(x)(Rx ⊃ Bx)”. With “Rx” interpreted as “x is a raven” and “Bx” as “x is black”, this schema represents, in first-order symbolic logic, the claim, “All ravens are black” The Raven Paradox:
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The Verifiability Criterion of Cognitive Significance
Carl Hempel deduced that the verifiability criteria could not be sustained in scientific theories due to the restriction of empirical knowledge to observation sentences and their deductive consequences, ultimately stating that it relies on logical contractions from observables. "he demonstrated that the verifiability criterion implies that existential generalizations are meaningful, but that universal generalizations are not, even though they include general laws" - Carl Hempel -
The Theoretician’s Dilemma
In "The Theoretician’s Dilemma" by Carl Hempel in 1958, he stated that the function of theories goes beyond establishing connections between observables. Meaning that every adequate scientific explanation is potentially predictive and also every adequate scientific prediction is potentially explanatory. Scientific explanations, predictions, all have the same logical character: they show that the fact under consideration can be inferred from certain other facts by means of specified general laws -
Aspects of Scientific Explanation
In this book released in 1965, Carl Hempel states how cognitive significance of different theoretical systems is not categorial, but rather a matter of degree. "Significant systems range from those whose entire extralogical vocabulary consists of observation terms, through theories whose formulation relies heavily on theoretical constructs, on to systems with hardly any bearing on potential empirical findings" - Carl Hempel
