Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
Newton’s theory? Perhaps that would be
in
too far. But they were certainly not
going
what Popper says they should have
doing
doing.
been
astronomers postualted the existence
Instead,
a hidden planet that was pulling Uranus.
of
appeared to explain Uranus’s strange
This
and, if true, would also redeem
orbit
theory. But it was all rather
Newton’s
In 1846, the astrophysicist Urbain
outlandish.
Verrier even made a prediction about
Le
this hidden planet would be. Such
where
jarred with Popper’s views
stubbornness
good science, and indeed, the French
of
of the time were unwilling to
observatories
Le Verrier in his search for the hidden
assist
so he asked friends in Germany for
planet,
One night they set their telescopes in
help.
direction Le Verrier had predicted and,
the
a half hour, spotted another planet,
within
where it was supposed to be. Le
exactly
stubbornness led to the discovery of
Verrier’s
new planet, Neptune, and upheld Newton’s
a
laws of gravity.
universal
was a roaring success for Le Verrier
This
Newtonian physics. However, it was
and
the end of the story. For many years,
not
had known that Mercury’s
astronomers
was also off the course predicted
orbit
Newtonian physics. And so Le Verrier
by
the same trick, predicting in 1859
tried
another hidden planet, this time close
that
the sun, was pulling Mercury off the
to
course. That planet was called
predicted
and was to Mercury what Neptune
Vulcan,
been to Uranus—except Vulcan was
had
discovered. For decades, astronomers
never
for the planet, carrying expensive
hunted
telescopes around the world to be
powerful
the right place at the right time (during a
at
eclipse). They stopped trying in 1877
solar
Le Verrier’s death, but the conundrum
after
was a fundamental mismatch between
there
Newton’s physics predicted and what
what
observed. Yet, Newton’s physics was
was
falsified, at least not until Einstein‘s
not
theory was “verified” in 1919.
alternative
relativity went on to make sense of
General
strange orbit, along with many
Mercury’s
anomalies, that eventually led to the
other
has a bad reputation for
Verificationism
good reasons—proving a scientific
some
to be true is problematic, and
theory
scientists are better off focusing on
so
However, attempts at
falsification.
can help resolve a scientific
verification
by legitimizing a new theory and
crisis
a paradigm shift. This was
precipitating
case, for example, in May 1919, when
the
predictions were verified by
Einstein’s
Eddington using measurements
Arthur
during a solar eclipse. Eddington
taken
pictures of stars that appeared to be
took
of place; their position was predicted
out
general relativity, which said that light
by
curve due to the sun’s gravitational
rays
The quality of Eddington’s
field.
was questioned but
measurements
event still ushered in a paradigm
the
The news was published all over
shift.
world. Though anomalies against
the
physics had accumulated for
Newtonian
the theory was never falsified—
years,
to Popper’s scientific method—
contrary
Eddington “verified” general
until
So, while verification does not
relativity.
a theory is proven true, it can help
mean
accept that a theory is good
scientists
7
paradigm shift away from Newton’s physics.
Box 7.2: Should we rule out
verification?
enough for now.
persisted for decades: if Vulcan did not exist,
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