ABSTRACT
According to the account of scientific method that was introduced in the previous chapter (naïve inductivism), scientific knowledge derives its justification by being based on generalisation from experience. Observations made in a variety of circumstances are to be recorded impartially and then induction is used to arrive at a general law. This is an attractive view, not least because it agrees with what many scientists have claimed about their own practice. It also explains the alleged objectivity of scientific knowledge by reference to the openmindedness of scientists when they make observations, and it keeps scientific knowledge firmly rooted in experience. I hope it is a reasonably familiar conception of how science works and how scientific knowledge acquires its justification.
