Study Guide: Concept 2 — Sophisticated Falsificationism

Core Concept

Theories are falsified only by better theories: rivals that predict novel facts, retain the old successes, and get some novelty corroborated. Evidence alone never executes; competition does. Crucial experiments are hindsight honors.

Key Terms

Duhem problem · novel fact · crucial experiment · theory succession

Case Summary

Uranus's anomalies → auxiliary planet → Neptune found (triumph). Mercury's anomalies → "Vulcan" → never found; Newton outlived it anyway until Einstein offered the better digestion.

Application Checklist

• [ ] Convert one grievance list into a rival prototype
• [ ] Identify the auxiliaries absorbing blame in your framework's misses
• [ ] Re-examine one "crucial experiment" story for retrospective crowning

Self-Test

1. The three conditions for "better theory"?
2. Why does the Duhem problem doom naive falsification?
3. What consequence did Popper find unacceptable here?