ABSTRACT
The hypotheses that might have about the world must be open to test by observation. It is this ability to test hypotheses that distinguishes the scientific enterprise from other attempts to describe and explain the world. This chapter examines two different analyses, called the Standard View and the Alternative View, will be considered. Both views accept the primary importance of statements being open to test by observation, and also have much else in common. According to the Standard View, science consists of a body of known facts and the explanation of these. The known facts are described by what are called observation statements, and any explanation of these facts is expressed in statements which postulate laws and theories. A statement of a particular law asserts that all the observable entities of a particular kind have a particular property. The statements of a theory explain laws and observations.
