Scientific theories

William Rankme has been credited with many things derived from his brilliant career, with perhaps the most unique being the transition of his empirical work into scientific theories published for the benefit of engineering students. He is considered the author of the modern philosophy of the steam engine and also the greatest among all founders of and contributors to the science of thermodynamics. 

A scientific theory T (in conjunction with accepted auxiliary assumptions) deductively entails some empirical sentence e e is, moreover, true (or, rather, accepted as true on the basis of experiment or observation). Does the extent to which this success lends confirmation or support to T depend on whether e describes some state of affairs that was unknown at the time of Ts articulation or instead on whether it describes some already well known state of affairs The methodological issue of whether, roughly speaking, successful prediction counts more for a theory than successful accommodation formed a celebrated part of the debate between William Whewell and John Stuart Mill. The latter, while allowing that successful predictions were well calculated to impress the ignorant vulgar , expressed utter... 

What implications for teaching can be drawn from students views and these historical considerations At school we often tiy to convince students to use a present-day scientific theory without offering them an insight into the often complicated methods of investigation and into the two-way interaction between the development of theories and empirical methods. Consequently, it must not be surprising that we find many students with concepts in mind that are alternative to those that scientists and teachers offer them. 

This leads us to a cracial point in thinking about micro-macro relations The closeness of the linkage between the microscopic and the macroscopic view of the world. As the example of the macromolecnlar theory shows, the same observations can be explained by dilferent theories. In other words, the cotmection between phenomena and scientific theories is not an nnambiguous one. Although one theory fits better with the observed facts than the other, the constraction of the model always remains a theoretical construction to explain phenomena. On the other hand, theories can influence the macroscopic reality as well. The polymer theory, for example, can be used to design polymers. 

The predictions made by Mendeleev provide an excellent example of how a scientific theory allows far-reaching predictions of as-yet-undiscovered phenomena. Today s chemists still use the periodic table as a predictive tool. For example, modem semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide were developed in part by predicting that elements in the appropriate rows and columns of the periodic table should have the desired properties. At present, scientists seeking to develop new superconducting materials rely on the periodic table to identify elements that are most likely to confer superconductivity. 

Although acids and bases have been recognized since antiquity, our concepts of them are still the subject of debate and development (Walden, 1929 Hall, 1940 Bell, 1947, 1973 Luder, 1948 KolthofF, 1944 Bjerrum, 1951 Day Selbin, 1969 Jensen, 1978 Finston Rychtman, 1982). The history of these concepts is a long one and can be seen as a prolonged and continuous refinement of inexact and commonsense notions into precise scientific theories. It has been a long and difficult journey and one that is by no means ended. 

In addition to his research in chemistry and physics, Dalton investigated colorblindness, an ailment he suffered from. However, he is best known for his work in the early 1800s in which he noticed that substances always combined in fixed proportions. A fixed weight of oxygen always combines with a fixed weight of hydrogen to produce a predictable amount of water. The Law of Fixed Proportions led Dalton to propose the first scientific theory of the atom ... 

What happens to a postulate of a scientific theory if it leads to incorrect results ... 

Careful selection of areas to work in, from an in-depth understanding of applicable scientific theories, practically in application and what chemists/engineers need. 

Lisa Lloyd I disagree with what Professor Williams just said. I think that every time you use the word reductionist , I would have used analysis . I think that it is correct that scientists use analysis to break systems down, but I think of reductionism as being something else which is the complete description of entire systems in terms of entities at a lower level. That s the sort of standard philosophical definition of reductionism which has a lot more metaphysical and epistemological bite than does the kind of analytic method that you are describing. So I would want to distinguish between analysis as a method, a set of approaches that all scientists do use, and reductionism as a set of commitments about what the ultimate aims of science or of a scientific theory would be, which is explanation at the lowest possible level. Does that make sense to you ... 

Origin science cannot be explained using normal traditional scientific theories, since the processes with which it deals cannot be checked by experiment and are thus also not capable of falsification. 

Scientific theory states that one of the most important tasks of science, and scientists, is the task of definition. Thus it becomes absolutely necessary to define the phenomenon known as life . Very few terms which are used so frequently have been defined in such an unsatisfactory manner. The paradox is that the more we know about life, the more difficult it becomes to define it satisfactorily. There is still no clear definition of the term life which is accepted by all the scientists studying this phenomenon (Cleland and Chyba, 2002). 

Wachtershauser gained attention with a fundamental article published at the end of the 1980s (Wachtershauser, 1988a). Active support for his entry into the (almost) closed society of biogeneticists was provided by Karl Popper, whose authority in the philosophy of science was recognized worldwide. Wachtershauser formulated his ideas on the basis of Popper s scientific theory. The new theory (or hypothesis) negates ... 

Neither of these sites contains much scientific theory. A more in-depth survey of the phenomenon of pain may be found at http //www.chic.org.uk/press/releases/pain2.htm, produced by the Consumer Health Information Centre (CHIC) and Michael Gross short article The molecules of pain describes the sensation of pain and the mode(s) by which pain killers operate see Chemistry in Britain, June 2001, p. 27. 

Contents Open Problems of the Present-Day Theoretical Chemistry. - On the Structure of Scientific Theories. - Pioneer Quantum Mechanics and its Interpretation. - Beyond Pioneer Quantum Mechanics. - A Framework for Theoretical Chemistry. - Reductionism, Holism and Complementarity. - Bibliography and Author Index. - Index. 

It cannot be emphasised too strongly that this entirely new hypothetical species lacks the essential feature of a scientific theory, namely that the newly invented species should have well-defined properties so that its existence can be tested by experiment moreover, it offends against Occam s Razor ( hypotheses must not be multiplied unnecessarily ). 

The demonstration that neither of the ions-at-any-price views, the main rivals of the pseudo-cationic theory, is compatible with the facts does not, of course, prove the ester theory. As I pointed out in my introduction, it is not possible to prove any scientific theory. What has been demonstrated, however, is that the ester theory will account for most of the established facts it has the advantage of being based in conventional organic chemistry, and it provides interesting guide-lines for future research and innovation. 

This author is pleased to repeat that his views on the role of esters as propagating species in cationoid polymerisations are surely open to improvement and refinement, but that they are a more useful guide to the interpretation of phenomena and the planning of experiments, than the views of the Commentator. The criterion of a successful scientific theory is heuristic utility. 

Hermann Kopp, Geschichte der Chemie, 4 vols. (Braunschweig Vieweg, 18431847). Adolphe Wurtz, A History of Chemical Theory, trans. Henry Watts (London Macmillan, 1869), on 1. As so often happens in historical mythologies, Wurtz s account had meaning for a contemporary quarrel in his own immediate scientific community. See Alan J. Rocke, "The Quiet Revolution of the 1850s Scientific Theory as Social Production and Empirical Practice," in Seymour Mauskopf, ed., Chemical Sciences in the Modern World (Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, in press). 

Laurent, Gerhardt, and the Philosophy of Chemistry," HSPS 6 (1975) 405429, and "Methods and Methodology in the Development of Organic Chemistry," Ambix 34 (1987) 147155 Rocke, "Kekule s Benzene Theory and the Appraisal of Scientific Theories," 45161, in A. Donovan et al., eds., Scrutinizing Science (Dordrecht Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988). On Kuhnian vs. Popperian models, see H. W. 

The 1947 Nobel Prize in chemistry was to be awarded to Robinson to honor his work in the synthesis of natural products, investigations that he pursued all through his career, and a field in which his wife both collaborated and worked independently.87 Yet, in his memoirs, Robert Robinson wrote that he considered the development of an electronic theory of reaction mechanisms "my most important contribution to knowledge."88 This suggests the seriousness with which he viewed scientific theories and his belief that scientific glory and reputation rest on theories, not discoveries. Let us turn now to these theories. 

Kekule s Benzene Theory and the Appraisal of Scientific Theories." In Scrutinizing Science. Ed. Arthur Donovan et al. Dordrecht Kluwer, 1988. Pp. 4561. 

The Quiet Revolution of the 1850s Scientific Theory as Social Production and Empirical Practice." In Chemical Sciences in the Modern World. Ed. Seymour Mauskopf. Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, in press. 

Anyway, it is important to remember that a mechanism may hardly be demonstrated a mechanism is a scientific theory which may be proved false by further observations280. In principle, our data are only able to give us some indications to the possible pathways of the reactions. 

Of the seed of gold, which he regarded as the seed, also, of all other metals, he says "The seed of animals and vegetables is something separate, and may be cut out, or otherwise separately exhibited but metallic seed is difiused throughout the metal, and contained in all its smallest parts neither can it be discerned from its body its extraction is therefore a task which may well tax the ingenuity of the most experienced philosopher." Well might this have been said of the electron of modem scientific theory. 

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