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The Logic of Scientific Discovery
Popper, Karl R. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London, Routledge, 1959. -
Karl Popper's Theory of Falsification
Karl Popper is well-known for many reasons in the scientific community, but his theory of falsification interests me a great deal, which also ties into his version of the scientific theory, the Hypothetico-Deductive Method. -
The Theory Itself
Popper believed that that it was more beneficial to try and disprove theories in science, more than prove, because you can't know everything about the universe all the time. There will always be new evidence you come across to either contradict or cement the ideas or theories you have. Therefore, he believed that this is what separated science from non-science. Since, in his beliefs, you can't prove a scientific theory through induction, the only way to prove it would be through deduction. -
Predictive Analysis and Experimental Manipulation
An example of each of these would be if my hypothesis was that cats and dogs don't get along. Predictive analysis would tell us that we should see no friendship or kinship between cats and dogs, in any case. Experimental manipulation would have us take a cat and a dog, and put them in various different scenarios where they could get along, and see if they do or don't. -
Conjectures and Refutations
Popper, Karl R. Conjectures and Refutations : The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. London ; New York, Routledge, 1963. -
The Hypothetico-Deductive Method
His theory of falsification ties into his version of the scientific theory, called the Hypothetico-Deductive Method. His version starts off with a hypothesis, which the researcher then tries to prove false through prediction and/or experimentation. -
Realism and the Aim of Science
Karl Raimund Popper, and William Warren Bartley. Postscript to the Logic of Scientific Discovery. London ; New York Ny, Routledge, 1992.