ABSTRACT

The traditional view of scientific method had the following stages in the following order, each giving rise to the next : I, observation and experiment; 2, inductive generalization; 3, hypothesis; 4, attempted verification of hypothesis; 5, proof or disproof; 6, knowledge. Popper replaced this with : I, problem (usually rebuff to existing theory or expectation); 2, proposed solution, in other words a new theory; 3, deduction of testable propositions from the new theory; 4, tests, i.e. attempted refutations by, among other things (but only among other things), observation and experiment; 5, preference established between competing theories.