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The falsifiability of theories: Total or partial? A contemporary evaluation of the Duhem-Quine thesis

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Notes

  1. F. S. C. Northrop,The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities, New York, 1947, p. 146.

  2. Cf. Pierre Duhem,The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton, 1954, Part2, Ch. 6, esp. pp. 183–190.

  3. Quine,From a Logical Point of View, 2. ed., Cambridge, 1961, p. 43. Cf. also p. 41, n. 17.

  4. H. Putnam, Three-Valued Logic,Philosophical Studies,8 (1957) 74.

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  5. Cf. H. L. Alexander,Reactions With Drug Therapy, Philadelphia, 1955, p. 14. Alexander writes: “It is true that drugs with closely related chemical structures do not always behave clinically in a similar manner, for antigenicity of simple chemical compounds may be changed by minor alterations of molecular structures. ... 1, 2, 4-trinitrobenzen... is a highly antigenic compound. ... 1, 3, ... trinitrobenzene is allergenically inert.” (I am indebted to Dr. A. I. Braude for this reference).

  6. Cf. A. Einstein, Reply to Criticisms,Albert-Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (ed. by P. A. Schilpp). Tudor, New York, 1949, pp. 676–678.

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  7. H. Poincaré,The Foundations of Science, Lancaster, 1946, p. 76.

  8. Cf. I. S. Sokolnikoff,Mathematical Theory of Elasticity. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1946. S. Timoshenko and J. N. Goodier,Theory of Elasticity. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1951.

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  9. H. Weyl,Space-Time-Matter. Dover Publications, New York, 1950, p. 67.

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  10. Ibid., p. 93.

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  11. I draw here on my more detailed treatment of this and related issues in A. Grünbaum, Geometry, Chronometry and Empiricism,Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol.3, Minneapolis, 1962, pp. 510–521.

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  12. L. P. Eisenhart,Riemannian Geometry. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1949, p. 177.

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  13. This law is only the first approximation, because the rate of thermal expansion varies with the temperature. The general equation giving the magnitudem t (length or volume) at a temperaturet, wherem 0 is the magnitude at 0° C, ism t =m 0(1 +±t +±t 2 +γt 3 + ...) whereα, β, γ, etc, are empirically determined coefficients (Cf.Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Cleveland, 1941, p. 2194). The argument which is about to be given by reference to the approximate form of the law can be readily generalized to forms of the law involving more than one coefficient of expansion.

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Grünbaum, A. The falsifiability of theories: Total or partial? A contemporary evaluation of the Duhem-Quine thesis. Synthese 14, 17–34 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02274802

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