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Improve Popper and Procure a Perfect Simulacrum of Verification Indistinguishable from the Real Thing

Maxwell, N; (2022) Improve Popper and Procure a Perfect Simulacrum of Verification Indistinguishable from the Real Thing. Journal for General Philosophy of Science , 53 pp. 163-185. 10.1007/s10838-021-09570-6. Green open access

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Abstract

According to Karl Popper, science cannot verify its theories empirically, but it can falsify them, and that suffices to account for scientific progress. For Popper, a law or theory remains a pure conjecture, probability equal to zero, however massively corroborated empirically it may be. But it does just seem to be the case that science does verify empirically laws and theories. We trust our lives to such verifications when we fly in aeroplanes, cross bridges and take modern medicines. We can do some justice to this apparent capacity of science to verify if we make a number of improvements to Popper’s philosophy of science. The key step is to recognize that physics, in accepting unified theories only, thereby makes a big metaphysical assumption about the nature of the universe. The outcome is a conception of scientific method which facilitates the criticism and improvement of metaphysical assumptions of physics. This view provides, not verification, but a perfect simulacrum of verification indistinguishable from the real thing.

Type: Article
Title: Improve Popper and Procure a Perfect Simulacrum of Verification Indistinguishable from the Real Thing
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s10838-021-09570-6
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-021-09570-6
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Keywords: Karl Popper, Falsification, Verification, Metaphysics of physics, Theory unity, Scientific progress
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Science and Technology Studies
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10128872
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