Event Categories: BSPS Choice Group Conjectures and Refutations Popper Seminar Sigma Club
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Peter Achinstein (Johns Hopkins): Who needs proof: James Clerk Maxwell on Scientific method
5 May 2015, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
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Abstract: Isaac Newton famously claimed that hypotheses, i.e., unproved propositions, have no place in “experimental philosophy.” James Clerk Maxwell disagreed and proposed three methods that can legitimately be employed when a scientist lacks proof for a theory, or even a theory to be proved. What are these methods, and are they legitimate?