Self-study
Passage A.
P1
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Intro to Popper ·
Power of negative evidence
A single black swan disproves that all swans are white
Asymmetry ·
Between positive and negative evidence
Positive evidence has no value
Requirements of Science ·
Search for negative evidence; making falsifiable predictions
P2
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Critique of Popper ·
Negative evidence is not as powerful as he believes
Premise ·
Theories have to work together to entail predictions
So a failed prediction means some theory is false, but it's unclear which one.
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P3
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Prediction ·
Orbit of Uranus
Multiple theories working together to entail the predictions. This can be framed as an application of Passage A.
Prediction ·
Failed
At least one of the theories is wrong.
Explanation ·
There's another planet
Scientists discovered Neptune.
P4
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Prediction ·
Orbit of Mercury
Prediction ·
Failed
Perhaps Newton's laws are incorrect or perhaps there's another planet.
Explanation ·
Newton's laws are incorrect
Einstein's general theory of relativity is more correct.
Passage Style
26.
It can be inferred that ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██
a
Popper's main contribution ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ █████████
Author A claims this.
But author B has no opinion on Popper. Nothing suggests he’d be skeptical of this claim.
b
Positive evidence plays ██ ████ ██ ██████████ █ ███████
Author A mentions this as a perspective held by Popper.
Author B would be skeptical, because he provides support against this claim. In passage B, positive evidence plays a role in supporting two theories. Observations of Uranus’s orbit aligned with what Newton’s laws predicted, once Neptune was accounted for. This was positive evidence in support of Newton’s laws. And observations of Mercury’s orbit aligned with what Einstein’s theory predicted. This was positive evidence in supporting Einstien’s theory.
c
Auxiliary premises are ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ████ █ ██████████ ███████
Author A claims this.
But author B wouldn’t be skeptical; he’d agree. He notes in P1 that auxiliary premises (what he confusingly refers to as auxiliary “assumptions”) were needed in order to derive predictions of Uranus’s orbit from Newton’s laws.
d
There is a ███████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████████ █████████
Author A claims this.
But we have no reason to think author B would be skeptical. He doesn’t suggest that positive and negative evidence are equally powerful. In fact, he doesn’t comment on the relative power of different kinds of evidence at all.
e
Scientific research involves ██████████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ █████
Author A mentions this as a perspective held by Popper.
But we have no reason to think author B would be skeptical. In fact, passage B gives an example of a theory (Newton’s theory of gravity) being refuted.