WHAT IS THIS THING

CALLED SCIENCE?
Advantages of Falsificationism over
Inductivism






What is this thing called Science?

Previously studies like Religion, Astronomy, and witchcraft were used to guide people in
different modes of life, but in 100 AD a man named Claudius Ptolemy brought a new orientation
in the world by introducing the Ptolemaic Model. This was a refinement of previous models
developed by Greek astronomers, which prominently emerged as a structure of the solar system.
Since then developments, improvements and negations contributed to science and made science
the most reliable source of getting guidance for life.
Science is commonly defined as an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of
testable explanations and predictions about the world. It is the practice where people, usually as
collectives, make controlled observations and testable predictions, in the hopes of constantly
refining their models.
Scientific knowledge was a body of reliable knowledge that can be logically
and rationally explained.(Aristotle)

Science has undoubtedly given solutions to many problems such as cures for diseases, provide
shelter and food for crowds of people, and enable the creation of large cities to allow
collaboration in enterprises. But the disadvantages it has brought forward outnumber its
advantages.
Religion, which was the fundamental source of guidance for people in history, is now threatened
by scientific studies. Prevalence of science in the contemporary world has made it inevitable for
every human being to have faith in Science, and religion has somewhat faded away. People are
more engaged in religious activities that are logically explained, and are justified through the
scientific approach. For example when religion said that we should sit while drinking water
people hardly followed it, but when science proved the same thing through the benefits of this
action, people appeared to have paid more attention.
Science is making people brutal. The number of deaths due to science is much greater than the
number of natural deaths. Killing a thousand of people is just a matter of pressing a button while
sipping coffee; the killer does not even have to hear or see the people dying. This has made
people inhuman and evil.
The nuclear destruction is not only dangerous at the moment but its effects are hazardous for
generations, diseases spread and the future generations are born deformed because of the
radiation. This can be seen from the consequences of the nuclear bombs dropped in Japan during
the Second World War.
Science is even threatening the environment. Global warming is a result of Industrialization that
requires deforestation; use of Chlorofluorocarbon, pollution caused by transportation and
manufacturing plants. These plants contaminate the water as well. The sea-level is rising due to
global warming. The effects are deadly including increased coastal erosion, higher storm-surge
flooding, changes in surface water quality and groundwater characteristics, increased loss of
property and coastal habitats, increased flood risk and potential loss of life, and impacts on
agriculture and aquaculture through decline in soil and water quality.
Profit maximization has become a sole-objective of the large industries, due to which people do
not even care about destroying environment just for the sake of earning a little profit. Businesses
these days focus more on creating needs than satisfying them, just how these multinationals did
before introducing Mineral Water. The water around the world was contaminated and then
people were made aware of the fact that drinking it would be injurious to their health, and in this
way the demand for bottled mineral water was created.
Use of scientific methods in carrying out routine tasks has made people totally dependent on
them. It has resulted in weaker memories, people have so much to remember and so much to
memorize that their minds have saturated. This is so evident from the fact that we cannot even
remember a telephone number, when people in old times even knew the names of their ancestors.
Machines have replaced manpower in many areas. The advancement in technology has greatly
increased unemployment. A lot of jobs are created but even with that, it causes greater
unemployment. The task that a hundred people could do before can now be completed by one
person.
The world around us is artificial, since everything we can see now is man-made. The world of
nature, which is real and created by God, is very rare. Science has replaced the world of nature.
Even the plants and trees are grown artificially. Part of the world which is natural is now said to
be Piece of Art. To reinforce the reality of artificial world, man has created artificial worlds
within this artificial world. For example, Disney World, Cyber Space etcetera. People detach
themselves from their real identities. The artificial world overwhelmingly dominates us, and
when we come out of it, the world in which we are living seems real to us. This has also added to
our dependency on Science.
The Philosophy of Science is a systematic attempt to make sense of those methodologies by
virtue of which the artificial world has been constituted. Science creates evils in society, and
provides medicine for it too. Instead of ending the manufacture of harmful products, like
cigarettes, science produces medicines for it as well. For example to reduce the dangerous effects
of smoking cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, nicotine patches, etcetera are available now.

Falsificationism over Inductivism
Inductivism
Inductivism is a name given to the process of induction. Human beings are genetically
programmed to base their future predictions on past experiences.
In the field of Science induction is widely used by scientists. Scientists begin with experiments,
conducted on different aspects of specific situations. These experiments are then used to come to
a generalization which satisfies the conclusions of the tests that are being conducted. Inductive
arguments are arguments that project observed regularities to unobserved cases. Even in our
daily life when we make decisions, they are usually based on the process of Induction. For
example when we assume that unsupported objects will fall towards the ground, if we have seen
many such objects without support falling; we are using induction.
Problem of induction criticizes induction as a method for forming beliefs. It says that it is not
rational to form expectations about what will happen based on what has happened in the past.

Falsificationism
Falsifiability is the possibility that a statement could be shown false by a particular observation
or physical experiment. Something is "falsifiable" does not mean that it is false; rather, it means
that if the statement is false, then its falsehood can be demonstrated. Scientists build a
hypothesis, and make a conjecture, which is a well informed guess. Scientists then try to refute
that conjecture by falsifying it. Therefore science does not prove things right (verify), but it
proves things wrong (falsify).
The claim "No human lives forever" is not falsifiable since it is not possible to prove it wrong. In
theory, one would have to observe a human living forever to falsify that claim. On the other
hand, "All humans live forever" is falsifiable since the presentation of just one dead human could
prove the statement.
A claim may be true and still be falsifiable; "All humans have red blood" is a true statement but
remains falsifiable because we can at least imagine finding a human with blood of another color
to prove this statement wrong.
Falsifiability is an important concept in science and the philosophy of science. The concept was
made popular by Karl Popper in his philosophical analysis of the scientific method. Popper
concluded that a hypothesis, proposition, or theory is "scientific" only if it is, among other
things, falsifiable. Popper asserted that unfalsifiable statements are non-scientific. He invented
the word Pseudoscience, which was used to refer to all the theories which do not have concrete
evidences to help in falsifying them. For example, psychological theories that identify
abnormalities cannot be falsified. According to several studies, differences between normal and
abnormal people were not explainable, and if the theories were followed then more than sixty
percent of the total population will be stated as mentally unfit. A theory which has withstood
several tests and is said to be derived from past experiences, in Popper's view is not equivalent
with confirmation and does not guarantee to be true or even partially true. This theory coined by
Karl Popper is known as the theory of Falsificationism.

Advantages of Falsificationism over Inductivism
If an inductivist has to disprove a theory, he would need to perform a lot of experiments in order
to disprove that theory. But all a falsificationist needs to do is propose one argument against it.
To make it clearer lets review the example proposed in the class. All swans are white. It is a
falsifiable claim. To disprove this, an inductivist would observe all the swans all over the world
to check whether all swans are white or not, while a falsificationist would search for a black
swan instead of observing all the swans.
Falsifiability is an important concept in science. Popper claims that hypothesis, claims and
theories are all scientific only if they are falsifiable. This is falsifiability is a necessary criteria for
scientific ideas. Popper also asserted that such statements that cannot be falsified are unscientific
statements. Popper claimed that without falsification, science cannot create its theories. So that is
another advantage of falsification over inductivism.
Falsificationists believe that facts as well as theory are fallible, while inductivists who follow
science are dependent upon theory. Falsificationists only seek to undermine the problem in the
theory proposed by the scientists. All they need to do is propose an argument against it and it
may be falsified. But in order to disprove a theory, inductivists have to propose a new
experimented theory which may take many years and requires a lot of hard work. So one
advantage falsificationists have over inductivists is that inductivists are theory dependent.
All crows are black, no matter how many black crows are observed, the empirical evidence
which in this case is the sense of seeing does not increase significantly. One can say that up till
now all the crows I have observed are black but can not say that all crows are black because I
have observed a lot of them. The probability of a particular conclusion is also considered
unrealistic by the falsificationists, they are misguided and if a million observed crows were
black, it will not affect the next observation. This was proved when the conjecture All Swans
are white was refuted with a single observation of a black Swan.
Inductivists try to verify the already existing theories through similar sort of experiments. The
theory which suggests that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius under standard conditions at sea-
level is also an inductive argument. But the falsificationists try to disprove these theories for
which they have to conduct experiments through different methods. The necessity of coming up
with different methods gives birth to new and innovative ideas. This undoubtedly emphasizes on
creative imagination and science is more often given newer experimental methods, contributing
towards development.
Induction is based on the knowledge gained from previous experiences and observations, and
that is applied for future predictions. Thus knowledge of the unobserved can be derived from
knowledge of the observed. But induction does not always work because the present and future is
not always similar to the past. Different conclusions can be drawn from it.
According to the falsificationists science develops when new theories emerge, by either
modifying or replacing the older ones. Preserving theories of the great scientists would not help
in revealing new facts about the universe and therefore they can not contribute in development.
The Ptolemaic model suited Christianity and it did help in identifying a number of heavenly
bodies, these are the main reasons due to which people at that time were reluctant to think other
than the Ptolemaic model but preserving the theory did not work too well and the shift to
Copernican model brought numerous significant developments. This also gives Falsificationism
an upper hand over Inductivism.
Falsificationism was a critique to Inductivism, the most commonly used method of generalizing
observations in both routine life and the field of Science. It did justify itself to a great extent, by
identifying the theory dependency, repetition of experiments and ignorance of uncertainty in
Inductivism, and turned out to be significant in bringing developments. This is why Karl
Poppers theory of Falsificationism was recognized in both the worlds of Science and
Philosophy.