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Scientific Testability Following the Assumption of Insufficient Knowledge and Resources

  • Miguel López-Astorga EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: June 10, 2024

Abstract

Carnap described ways to test scientific hypotheses. However, Carnap acknowledged that confirmation can never be definite. This left open the issue about the criteria to accept hypotheses. On the other hand, Wang has developed a computer program working without sufficient knowledge or resources, which makes the action of the program akin to the manner the human mind thinks. Wang’s program includes quantitative indicators that can be assigned to the frequency and the confidence of sentences. The present paper tries to link both approaches. The goal is to show how quantitative indicators such as those in Wang’s program can also be attributed to scientific hypotheses. Those indicators can help make decisions about the acceptance of the hypotheses. All of this allows proposing general characteristics for a possible algorithm to decide whether a particular hypothesis is admissible.


Corresponding author: Miguel López-Astorga, Institute of Humanistic Studies “Juan Ignacio Molina”, 28066 Universidad de Talca , Talca, Chile, E-mail:

Funding source: PIA Ciencias Cognitivas, Centro de Investigacion en Ciencias Cognitivas, Instituto de Estudios Humanisticos, Universidad de Talca

Funding source: Proyecto Dialectica virtuosa de la educacion: De la fundamentacion filosofica y antropologica a implementaciones concretas, UNMdP

Award Identifier / Grant number: 15/I122 SAL127/19

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Received: 2023-12-15
Accepted: 2024-05-24
Published Online: 2024-06-10
Published in Print: 2024-11-26

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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