Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series)

by Peter Godfrey-Smith

"hypothetico-deductivism." Now we are dealing with a method rather than a theory of confirmation. Science textbooks are more cautious about laying out recipes for science than they used to be, but descriptions of the hypothetico-deductive method are still fairly common. Formulations of the method vary, but some are basically a combination of Popper's view of testing and a less skeptical view about confirmation. In these versions, the hypothetico-deductive method is a process in which scientists come up with conjectures and then deduce observational predictions from those conjectures. If the predictions come out as the theory says, then the theory is supported. If the predictions do not come out as the theory says, the theory is not supported and should be rejected.