ABSTRACT
Rats prematurely separated from their mothers developed a predisposition to ulcer disease so that they developed stomach lesions when stressed as adults. Rats separated from their mothers at normal time developed significantly fewer stomach lesions when stressed as adults. Hypothetical-deductive models consider evolution in scientific truths to rely on a bedrock of scientific knowledge, which evolves via a gradual accretion of supporting or disconfirming data. Scientists and philosophers are currently attempting to delineate a middle approach between a positivistic approach to an absolute truth and a “weltanschauung” emphasis on non-objective presumptive truths. Rats born to mothers who had been separated early from their mothers were allowed to grow to reproductive age and produce offspring. While there have been many animal studies demonstrating epigenetic phenomena, there have been comparably fewer reports of such epigenetic changes in humans. In 1950s and 1960s, scientists influenced by relativity theory and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle adopted new understanding of the relationship between science and objective reality.
