The phlogiston theory is an obsolete scientific theory of combustion. It was developed by J. J. Becher late in the 17th century and was extended and popularized by Georg Ernst Stahl, who declared the rusting of metal to be a combustion process. Phlogiston theory - Theory. The theory holds that all flammable materials contain phlogiston (derived noun form of the Greek phlogistos, meaning flammable), a substance without color, odor, taste, or weight that is liberated in burning. Once burn ...

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Phlogiston theory - Theory Phlogiston theory - Challenge and demise Phlogiston theory - Bibliography

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Rain follows the plow, Rain follows the plow - History

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The most famous modern example of protosciences might be the theory of continental drift as originally proposed by Alfred Wegener (which eventually became an accepted scientific model when the mechanisms of plate tectonics became understood). Other examples include: The various string theories of physics. The cognitive science of mathematics. Astrobiology or Exobiology, the protoscientific study of extraterrestrial life forms, including speculation on alternative biochemistries. Memetics, the study of ...

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Protoscience, Protoscience - Examples of protosciences

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Impetus has several possible meanings: In the history of science, impetus is an obsolete scientific theory of motion, largely developed by Jean Buridan in the 14th century. It was superseded by the modern theory of inertia developed by Galileo Galilei. See main article: Inertia: History. In music theory, and specifically, piano theory, Impetus can mean double dotting a dotted note; for example if one double dots a crotchet, then instead of

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The theory holds that all flammable materials contain phlogiston (derived noun form of the Greek phlogistos, meaning flammable), a substance without color, odor, taste, or weight that is liberated in burning. Once burned, the "dephlogisticated" substance was held to be in its "true" form, the calx. "Phlogisticated" substances are those that contain phlogiston and are "dephlogisticated" when burned. Since any substance could be observed to burn for only a limited time with limited air (for instance in a sealed container), air was thought ...

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Phlogiston theory, Phlogiston theory - Theory, Phlogiston theory - Challenge and demise, Phlogiston theory - Bibliography

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The caloric theory of heat is an obsolete scientific theory in thermodynamics, developed mostly during the 18th and 19th centuries. Caloric theory - History. In the history of thermodynamics, the initial explanations of heat were thoroughly confused with explanations of combustion. After J. J. Becher and Georg Ernst Stahl introduced the phlogiston theory of combustion in the 17th century, phlogiston was thought to be the substance of heat. The calorific theory was introduced by Antoine ...

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Caloric theory - History Caloric theory - Theory Caloric theory - Successes Caloric theory - Demise Caloric theory - Significance in the philosophy of science Caloric theory - Notes

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Eventually, quantitative experiments revealed problems, including the fact that some metals, such as magnesium gained weight when they burned, even though they were supposed to have lost phlogiston. Some phlogiston proponents explained this by concluding that it had "negative weight"; others, such as Guyton de Morveau, gave the more conventional argument that phlogiston was lighter than air. However, a more detailed analysis based on the Archimedean principle and the densities of magnesium and its combustion product shows that just being lig ...

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Phlogiston theory, Phlogiston theory - Theory, Phlogiston theory - Challenge and demise, Phlogiston theory - Bibliography

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Developed in the early 19th century, Lamarckism held that traits acquired (or diminished) during the lifetime of an organism can be passed on to the offspring. Lamarck based his theory on two observations, in his day considered to be generally true: Use and disuse – Individuals lose characteristics they do not require (or use) and develop characteristics that are useful. Inheritance of acquired traits – Individuals inherit ...

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Lamarckism, Lamarckism - History, Lamarckism - Lamarckism and single celled organisms, Lamarckism - Lamarckism and societal change, Lamarckism - Reference

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Falsifiability is an important concept in the philosophy of science that amounts to the apparently paradoxical idea that a proposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false. Falsifiable does not mean false. For a proposition to be falsifiable, it must be at least in principle possible to make an observation that would show the proposition to be false, even if that observation had not been made. For example, the proposition "All crows are black" would be falsified ...

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Falsifiability - Naïve falsification Falsifiability - Falsificationism Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation Falsifiability - Criticism
Falsifiability - From scientists
Falsifiability - Some examples
Falsifiability - Mathematics Falsifiability - Ethics Falsifiability - Theism Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories Falsifiability - Economics Falsifiability - Historicism Falsifiability - Solipsism Falsifiability - Physical laws

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While Lamarckism has been discredited as an evolutionary influence for larger lifeforms, some scientists controversially argue that it can be observed among single celled organisms[1]. Whether such mutations are directed or not also remains point of contention. In 1988 John Cairns at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England and a group of other scientists renewed the Lamarckian controversy (which by then had been a dead debate for many years)[2]. The group took a mutated strain of E. coli that was unable to consume the sugar lactose ...

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Lamarckism, Lamarckism - History, Lamarckism - Lamarckism and single celled organisms, Lamarckism - Lamarckism and societal change, Lamarckism - Reference

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Vis viva - Summary. Vis Viva (from the Latin for living force) is an obsolete scientific theory that served as an elementary and limited early formulation of the principle of conservation of energy. Proposed by Gottfried Leibniz over the period 1676-1689, the theory was hugely controversial as it seemed to oppose the theory of conservation of momentum advocated by Sir Isaac Newton and René Descartes. However, the two theories are now understood to be complementary. The theory w ...

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Vis viva - Summary Vis viva - In detail

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Falsifiability is an important concept in the philosophy of science that amounts to the apparently paradoxical idea that a proposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false. Falsifiable does not mean false. For a proposition to be falsifiable, it must be at least in principle possible to make an observation that would show the proposition to be false, even if that observation had not been made. For example, the proposition "All crows are black" would be falsified ...

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Falsifiability - Naïve falsification Falsifiability - Falsificationism Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation Falsifiability - Criticism Falsifiability - Some examples
Falsifiability - Mathematics Falsifiability - Ethics Falsifiability - Theism Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories Falsifiability - Economics Falsifiability - Historicism Falsifiability - Solipsism Falsifiability - Physical laws

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List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Biology. See also Medicine below. Creationism is the belief that the origin of everything in the universe is the result of a first cause, which was creation brought about by a creator God. 'Creationism' generally refers to the version of this concept of cosmology that is opposed to the theory of Evolution. See creation science. Creation biology is the subset of creation science that tries to explain bio ...

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List of alternative speculative and disputed theories, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Theories, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Biology, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Divination, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Geology, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Medicine, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Physics, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Psychology, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Sociology, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Xenology, List of alternative speculative and disputed theories - Miscellaneous

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Claims about verifiability and falsifiability have been used to criticize various controversial views. Examining these examples shows the usefulness of falsifiability by showing us where to look when attempting to criticise a theory. Non-falsifiable theories can usually be reduced to a simple uncircumscribed existential statement, such as there exists a green swan. It is entirely possible to verify that the theory is true, simply by producing the green swan. But since this statement does not specify when or where the green swan exists, it is simply not possible to show that the swan does not exist, and so i ...

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Falsifiability, Falsifiability - Naïve falsification, Falsifiability - Falsificationism, Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument, Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments, Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation, Falsifiability - Criticism, Falsifiability - From scientists, Falsifiability - Some examples, Falsifiability - Mathematics, Falsifiability - Ethics, Falsifiability - Theism, Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories, Falsifiability - Economics, Falsifiability - Historicism, Falsifiability - Solipsism, Falsifiability - Physical laws

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Falsifiability was first developed by Karl Popper in the 1930s. Popper noticed that two types of statements are of particular value to scientists. The first are statements of observations, such as 'this is a white swan'. Logicians call these statements singular existential statements, since they assert the existence of some particular thing. They can be parsed in the form: There is an x which is a swan and x is white. The second type of statement of interest to scientists categorizes all instances of something, for example "All ...

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Falsifiability, Falsifiability - Naïve falsification, Falsifiability - Falsificationism, Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument, Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments, Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation, Falsifiability - Criticism, Falsifiability - From scientists, Falsifiability - Some examples, Falsifiability - Mathematics, Falsifiability - Ethics, Falsifiability - Theism, Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories, Falsifiability - Economics, Falsifiability - Historicism, Falsifiability - Solipsism, Falsifiability - Physical laws

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In place of naïve falsification, Popper envisioned science as evolving by the successive rejection of falsified theories, rather than falsified statements. Falsified theories are to be replaced by theories which can account for the phenomena which falsified the prior theory, that is, with greater explanatory power. Thus, Aristotelian mechanics explained observations of objects in everyday situations, but was falsified by Galileo’s experiments, and was itself replaced by Newtonian mechanics which accounted for the phenomena noted by Galile ...

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Falsifiability, Falsifiability - Naïve falsification, Falsifiability - Falsificationism, Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument, Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments, Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation, Falsifiability - Criticism, Falsifiability - From scientists, Falsifiability - Some examples, Falsifiability - Mathematics, Falsifiability - Ethics, Falsifiability - Theism, Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories, Falsifiability - Economics, Falsifiability - Historicism, Falsifiability - Solipsism, Falsifiability - Physical laws

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The falsification of theories occurs through modus tollens, via some observation. Suppose some theory T implies an observation O: The required observation, however, is not made, therefore So by Modus Tollens, ...

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Falsifiability, Falsifiability - Naïve falsification, Falsifiability - Falsificationism, Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument, Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments, Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation, Falsifiability - Criticism, Falsifiability - From scientists, Falsifiability - Some examples, Falsifiability - Mathematics, Falsifiability - Ethics, Falsifiability - Theism, Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories, Falsifiability - Economics, Falsifiability - Historicism, Falsifiability - Solipsism, Falsifiability - Physical laws

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Popper proposed falsification as a way of determining if a theory is scientific or not. If a theory is falsifiable, then it is scientific; if it is not falsifiable, then it is not science. Popper uses this criterion of demarcation to draw a sharp line between scientific and unscientific theories. Some have taken this principle to an extreme to cast doubt on the scientific validity of many disciplines (such as macroevolution and Cosmology). Falsifiability was one of the criteria used by Judge William Overton to determine that 'creation science' was not ...

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Falsifiability, Falsifiability - Naïve falsification, Falsifiability - Falsificationism, Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument, Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments, Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation, Falsifiability - Criticism, Falsifiability - From scientists, Falsifiability - Some examples, Falsifiability - Mathematics, Falsifiability - Ethics, Falsifiability - Theism, Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories, Falsifiability - Economics, Falsifiability - Historicism, Falsifiability - Solipsism, Falsifiability - Physical laws

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Thomas Kuhn’s influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions argued that scientists work within a conceptual paradigm that determines the way in which they view the world. Scientists will go to great length to defend their paradigm against falsification, by the addition of ad hoc hypotheses to existing theories. Changing one's 'paradigm' is not easy, and only through some pain and angst does science (at the level of ...

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Falsifiability, Falsifiability - Naïve falsification, Falsifiability - Falsificationism, Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument, Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments, Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation, Falsifiability - Criticism, Falsifiability - From scientists, Falsifiability - Some examples, Falsifiability - Mathematics, Falsifiability - Ethics, Falsifiability - Theism, Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories, Falsifiability - Economics, Falsifiability - Historicism, Falsifiability - Solipsism, Falsifiability - Physical laws

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One notices a white swan, from this one can conclude: At least one swan is white. From this, one may wish to infer that: All swans are white. However, to prove this, one must find all the swans in the world and verify that they are white. As it turns out, not all swans are white. By finding a black swan, one has falsified the statement all swans are white; it is not true. ...

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Falsifiability, Falsifiability - Naïve falsification, Falsifiability - Falsificationism, Falsifiability - Popper's swan argument, Falsifiability - Formal logical arguments, Falsifiability - The criterion of demarcation, Falsifiability - Criticism, Falsifiability - From scientists, Falsifiability - Some examples, Falsifiability - Mathematics, Falsifiability - Ethics, Falsifiability - Theism, Falsifiability - Conspiracy theories, Falsifiability - Economics, Falsifiability - Historicism, Falsifiability - Solipsism, Falsifiability - Physical laws

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