The argument I believe is that the theory needs to be formulated in a way that allows us to disprove it. But this is wishful thinking because the formulation involves notions that would also require to be verified or at least also falsified. >
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Replying to @twitemp1 @bradpwyble and
Yes, we can make a simple prediction and it can be denied (proved wrong). So far so good, but this does not suffice to disprove the theory for the reasons mentioned above + others.
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Replying to @twitemp1 @bradpwyble and
Falsifiability is not a claim about what to do when we've proven a prediction wrong, it's about theories that don't make testable predictions *at all*.
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Replying to @sillyolyou @twitemp1 and
But I think the point is that when one is being sufficiently strict, no theories make testable predictions because of the myriad of assumptions that need to be added. Therefore we end up making judgement calls about what counts as falsification.
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Replying to @bradpwyble @twitemp1 and
"no theories make testable predictions because of the myriad of assumptions that need to be added." That is not really a claim I'm convinced of, though.
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Replying to @sillyolyou @bradpwyble and
Let's test a prediction, "One mole of an ideal gas will occupy a volume of 22.4 litres". We need to defined mole, ideal gas, volume, litre. Moreover, we need to prove that al mole is 6.023 × 10^23 of some chemical unit...
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Replying to @twitemp1 @sillyolyou and
This may not be a good example of assumptions because it's not clear how you'd test the volume that a gas occupies, which is a much bigger problem. i.e. There's a measurement issue here (which also highlights the difficulty of testing theories but in a different way)
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Replying to @bradpwyble @twitemp1 and
A better prediction might be that if you add a mole of a gas to a given volume, the pressure in that volume will increase by X. But you're still going to have difficulty proving that you've added one mole of an idealized gas. You'd have to use a technique that you assume works
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Replying to @bradpwyble @twitemp1 and
I'll have to get back 2 u after therapy.
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Replying to @sillyolyou @bradpwyble and
Wish you good therapy, and thank you for engaging!
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This is such a civil and lovely exchange.
Good therapy!
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