Evaluation on the simplicity of scientific theories PDF
10 Pages2929 Words110 Views
Added on 2021-09-22
Evaluation on the simplicity of scientific theories PDF
Added on 2021-09-22
BookmarkShareRelated Documents
Running head: AN EVALUATION ON THE SIMPLICITY OF SCIENTIFIC THEORIES An evaluation on the simplicity of scientific theories Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
AN EVALUATION ON THE SIMPLICITY OF SCIENTIFIC THEORIES1 In this paper, I will argue that the simple theories should be preferred in science over the complex ones from a subjective point of view using the Bayesian model of evidence in science. In this paper, I will explore the various standpoints of people criticising the several versions of the “Occam’s razor” that inherently talks about the preference of the simple theories over the complex theories that are used in the field of science. As a notion of conclusion, this assignment strives to reflect that the fact that simplicity in science is not always justified and the complexity of the scientific theories are required to be considered as well for deriving the best results. The advancement of science and technologies has reached a certain height of standards for over the years. Although the scientific theories have been provided with several substantial evidences, there have been criticism as well about the level of complexity of these theories. According to the theory stated by William of Ockham, the theories of science should be of a level that is not beyond the understanding level of common human beings (Engström et al.). The Bayesian model however categorises these uncertainties according to the evidences that supports the level of simplicity in stating the scientific theories. The new radical views of the confirmation and the evidences of the scientific theories forms a viewpoint termed as Bayesianism. The Occam’s razor is based upon the philosophy that was formulated by the William of Ockham. According to the philosophy, simple theories in the field of science should be preferred than the theories which are devoted in stating complex explanations as these explanations require a lot of speculations to be made than the simple theories of science (Van Den Berg). According to Ockham the abstractions and generalisations were mental concepts that were basically derived from the perceiving of the particulars and categorising them among the similarities, derivations, affinities and the kinds of such type (Vapnik). Conception can be defined as the role of perception of the level of understanding of an individual object
AN EVALUATION ON THE SIMPLICITY OF SCIENTIFIC THEORIES2 in some ways that are corresponding on of the particular concept. However, the abstractions on the other hand were to be regarded as the objects according to their own state. These entities termed as universals were one problem among many that was confined towards making the syllogistic logic more complex, unpretendingly huge and way less powerful than the much more rationalised system that are used today (Van Den Berg). Ockham’s razor principally was devised to provide with faith from the rational enquiries but the modern elaborations of the Occam’s razor states that it is unwise to make a lot of speculations keeping in mind the name of God (Valkenburg et al.). There may be various ways in which the simplicity can be regarded as the most demanding feature in the field of scientific theories. The simpler theories are often regarded as the easily perceived ones or very much elegant than the theories that are complex in comparison to these theories (Nola, Robert, and Sankey). The simpler theories of science are much easier to understand and is more flexible to work with. However, many of the scientists and the philosophers believe that simplicity is something that cannot be associated with the relevance of the theories that described in the field of science (Rothe and Peter). Additionally they believe that simplicity in the genre of science should not be taken into account every time especially when the researches are taking place absolutely fine and are moving on the right track of discovery. Instead of this, simplicity should be regarded as one of the main criteria to evaluate and select from the theories that are in contradiction to the theory that is being worked upon (Bhaskar and Roy). Simplicity considerations are also considered as the integral to several methods of standardization that the scientists use to interfere with the hypotheses from the empirical data that is the most common explanation of this being the most fitted one. The Bayesian model or Bayesianism is devoted upon the understanding of the evidence using the theory of probability that is quite a popular ideology. There is a dedicated
End of preview
Want to access all the pages? Upload your documents or become a member.