Poppers theory of Falsifiability (Essay Sample)

Name Tutors name Course Date Poppers theory of Falsifiability states that for a statement to be scientific it must be falsifiable. His philosophy of science was that instead of trying to find the truth, it is better to eliminate the false. Falsifiability is a belief that for hypothesis to be accepted it should be disprovable; when it is disprovable it should be accepted as scientific theory. An example is existence of God, if it is asked as whether God exist or not, that cannot be science because it is a theory that can't be disproved scientifically. An example of a theory that is acceptable as scientific is Newton's theory of gravity, because an object cannot float of earth and the figures obtained through experiment and research fits explanation. Popper claimed that many branches of science especially social science should not be taken as scientific because they cannot be falsified (Popper, 1). An example is sociology; it mainly uses case studies to observe animals or people in the society or their natural environment without really testing any hypothesis. Though such theories and ideas are not falsified many accept it as scientific because it mainly advances human knowledge. He came up with his novel solution of problem of demarcation of science. Science is distinguished from by its inductive method; it is through the characteristic use of observation and experimental methods to come up with results unlike pure logical analysis. The problem with it is that no run of observable data irrespective whether they are long and not broken is logically enough to come up with the truth of unrestricted generalization (Popper, 1). This notion led the scientist believe that sometimes science should live by faith because some things are hard to define and some things are hard to prove without circularity. Popper believed that unrestricted generalization cannot be verified put he pointed that it can be falsified. He pointed using an example that if there are crows no amount of observation will verify the statement that "all crows are black" if one white crow is observed, it will falsify the statement. Science puts itself at risk because its theories are liable to being discarded or modified if the results of the experiment fail to agree with what is being expected. No scientific theory or experiment is conclusively verified irrespective of the number of tests carried out. Pooper explained that in science even something that is well tested and widely accepted like Newton law of gravity; it has not been proven permanently immune from being revised. Science has evolved over a long period of time and I don't agree with popper theory of falsification. His idea that no amount of data can confirm a theory is dictatorial and many scientists do not obey that. In real practice, large data improve the confidence that the theory is true. A theory should not be confirmed hundred percent for it to be used or accepted, a theory should only be good enough to show that what is being tested is correct (Popper, 2). The said lack of confidence in a theory because the data is not one hundred confirmed is just a philosophical fear and not scientific, it bothers professionals who are haunting the halls of academia than those professionals performing experiments in their daily life. His ide...