Philosophy of Being and Knowledge

Philosophy of Science

Proof

Regardless of the objectives scientists set when formulating scientific theories, and whatever the essence of these theories might be, science must adhere to the laws of logic. According to Leibniz's principle of sufficient reason, every assertion must be sufficiently justified. Thus, a scientific theory must be proven.

This leads to another significant question in the philosophy of science: what constitutes a sufficient proof. Prior to the Renaissance, European scholars were convinced that the obviousness of a theory constituted its sufficient basis. If someone observed something and had no reason to doubt the adequacy of their perception, then the results of such perception could be considered true. However, Renaissance scholars questioned this concept of proof. For example, Copernicus observed the Sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening, i.e., he saw the Sun revolving around the Earth, and while he had no reason to doubt that his eyesight and telescope were sufficiently good, he disagreed with this observation and developed a theory that is now widely accepted but was not self-evident. The advancement of science has shown that most scientific theories are not self-evident; they need to be substantiated. Francis Bacon demonstrated that researchers' views are conditioned by illusions that distort perception, thus making obviousness untrustworthy. Karl Popper proposed accepting probable theories and using them until experience falsifies them.

Yet another issue arises here. The French scholar Pierre Maurice Duhem and the American logician Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) formulated an idea commonly known as the Duhem-Quine Thesis or holism (όλος, holos - whole). According to this thesis, each theory consists of a set of hypotheses. If facts emerge that falsify the theory, it does not reveal which specific hypothesis is false. Facts falsify the entire theory, even though only one component of the theory might be incorrect. The Duhem-Quine Thesis demonstrated that even falsification does not prove the truth or falsity of a theory. The debate on what constitutes a satisfactory proof remains open.