scholarly journals Degrees of riskiness, falsifiability, and truthlikeness

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leander Vignero ◽  
Sylvia Wenmackers
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Context ◽  
Quantitative Account ◽  
Probabilistic Theories ◽  
Scientific Hypotheses

AbstractIn this paper, we take a fresh look at three Popperian concepts: riskiness, falsifiability, and truthlikeness (or verisimilitude) of scientific hypotheses or theories. First, we make explicit the dimensions that underlie the notion of riskiness. Secondly, we examine if and how degrees of falsifiability can be defined, and how they are related to various dimensions of the concept of riskiness as well as the experimental context. Thirdly, we consider the relation of riskiness to (expected degrees of) truthlikeness. Throughout, we pay special attention to probabilistic theories and we offer a tentative, quantitative account of verisimilitude for probabilistic theories.

Character selection and the quantification of morphological disparity

Paleobiology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley Deline ◽  
William I. Ausich
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Morphological Diversity ◽  
Small Subset ◽  
Early Paleozoic ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Rarefaction Analysis ◽  
Morphological Studies ◽  
Body Regions ◽  
Scientific Hypotheses

AbstractA priori choices in the detail and breadth of a study are important in addressing scientific hypotheses. In particular, choices in the number and type of characters can greatly influence the results in studies of morphological diversity. A new character suite was constructed to examine trends in the disparity of early Paleozoic crinoids. Character-based rarefaction analysis indicated that a small subset of these characters (~20% of the complete data set) could be used to capture most of the properties of the entire data set in analyses of crinoids as a whole, noncamerate crinoids, and to a lesser extent camerate crinoids. This pattern may be the result of the covariance between characters and the characterization of rare morphologies that are not represented in the primary axes in morphospace. Shifting emphasis on different body regions (oral system, calyx, periproct system, and pelma) also influenced estimates of relative disparity between subclasses of crinoids. Given these results, morphological studies should include a pilot analysis to better examine the amount and type of data needed to address specific scientific hypotheses.

The Primary/Secondary Quality Distinction: Berkeley, Locke, and the Foundations of Corpuscularian Science

Dialogue ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold I. Davidson ◽  
Norbert Hornstein
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Elementary Particles ◽  
Philosophical Foundation ◽  
Epistemological Foundation ◽  
Secondary Quality ◽  
Quality Distinction ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Scientific Hypotheses

Recent interpretations of Locke's primary/secondary quality distinction have tended to emphasize Locke's relationship to the corpuscularian science of his time, especially to that of Boyle. Although this trend may have corrected the unfortunate tendency to view Locke in isolation from his scientific contemporaries, it nevertheless has resulted in some over- simplifications and distortions of Locke's general enterprise. As everyone now agrees, Locke was attempting to provide a philosophical foundation for English corpuscularianism and one must therefore look not only at the current scientific hypotheses but also at the nature of the philosophical foundation Locke was attempting to erect. In particular, Locke made an attempt, based on epistemological principles, to give a philosophical justification of atomistic corpuscularianism. Moreover, he was not content to give this justification post hoc—the epistemological foundation was prior to, and determined the framework for, the details of the correct scientific theory. Locke's epistemology made legitimate an atomistic theory, one making crucial use of the notion of solidity in the definition of the elementary particles, although it did not prejudge the details of this theory.

scholarly journals Spooky action-at-a-distance in general probabilistic theories

2012 ◽  
Vol 376 (45) ◽  
pp. 2926-2930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Mauro DʼAriano ◽  
Franco Manessi ◽  
Paolo Perinotti
Keyword(s):  
Action At A Distance ◽  
General Probabilistic Theories ◽  
Probabilistic Theories

How Failure to Falsify contributes to the Replication Crisis in the Clinical Neurosciences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Hillary ◽  
Sarah Rajtmajer
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Publication Rate ◽  
Computational Power ◽  
Clinical Neuroscience ◽  
Replication Crisis ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Current Science ◽  
Scientific Hypotheses

Abstract:This critical review discusses evidence for the replication crisis in the clinical neuroscience literature with focus on the size of the literature and how scientific hypotheses are framed and tested. We aim to reinvigorate discussions born from philosophy of science regarding falsification (see Popper, 1959;1962) but with hope to bring pragmatic application that might give real leverage to attempts to address scientific reproducibility. The surging publication rate has not translated to unparalleled scientific progress so the current “science-by-volume” approach requires new perspective for determining scientific ground truths. We describe an example from the network neurosciences in the study of traumatic brain injury where there has been little effort to refute two prominent hypotheses leading to a literature without resolution. Based upon this example, we discuss how building strong hypotheses and then designing efforts to falsify them can bring greater precision to the clinical neurosciences. With falsification as the goal, we can harness big data and computational power to identify the fitness of each theory to advance the neurosciences.

Was That Painful or Nonpainful? The Sensation and Pain Rating Scale Performs Well in the Experimental Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 472.e1-472.e12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria J. Madden ◽  
Peter R. Kamerman ◽  
Valeria Bellan ◽  
Mark J. Catley ◽  
Leslie N. Russek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rating Scale ◽  
Pain Rating ◽  
Experimental Context ◽  
Pain Rating Scale
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