Logic of scientific discovery

Table of Contents:

Part I: Introduction to the logic of science
1. A survey of some fundamental problems
2. On the problem of a theory of scientific method

Part II: Some structural components of a theory of experience
3. Theories
4. Falsifiability
5. The problem of the empirical basis
6. Degrees of testability
7. Simplicity
8. Probability
9. Some observations on quantum theory
10. Corroboration, or how a theory stands up to tests

The Logic of Scientific Discovery revolutionized contemporary thinking about science and knowledge. This book presents the author’s view of science and his solutions to two fundamental problems of the theory of knowledge; the demarcation of science from non-science, and the role of induction in the growth of scientific knowledge. The author recognized that scientific theories are the result of creative imagination and that the growth of scientific knowledge rests on the doctrine of falsifiability: that only those theories that are testable and falsifiable by observation and experiment are properly open to scientific evaluation. These stirring ideas had a hugely significant effect on the philosophical and scientific communities and are central to the development of the philosophy of science.