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Single Idea 3618

[filed under theme 14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 3. Experiment ]

Full Idea

I observe almost no individual effect without immediately knowing that it can be deduced in many different ways, ..and I know of no way to resolve this but by experiments such that the results are different according to different explanations.

Gist of Idea

Only experiments can settle disagreements between rival explanations

Source

René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §6.65)

Book Ref

Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.81

The 15 ideas with the same theme [deliberate isolation of one cause or effect]:

12117 Science moves up and down between inventions of causes, and experiments [Bacon]
6603 Nature is revealed when we put it under pressure rather than observe it [Bacon]
3618 Only experiments can settle disagreements between rival explanations [Descartes]
16944 Science is common sense, with a sophisticated method [Quine]
15869 Reports of experiments eliminate the experimenter, and present results as the behaviour of nature [Harré]
7452 An experiment is a test, or an adventure, or a diagnosis, or a dissection [Hacking, by PG]
2454 We can deliberately cause ourselves to have true thoughts - hence the value of experiments [Fodor]
2455 Interrogation and experiment submit us to having beliefs caused [Fodor]
2461 An experiment is a deliberate version of what informal thinking does all the time [Fodor]
2460 Participation in an experiment requires agreement about what the outcome will mean [Fodor]
22172 Not all sciences are experimental; astronomy relies on careful observation [Okasha]
22177 Randomised Control Trials have a treatment and a control group, chosen at random [Okasha]
14351 Maybe an experiment unmasks an essential disposition, and reveals its regularities [Corry]
22139 Experiments don't just observe; they look to see what interventions change the natural order [Boulter]
22357 The 'experimenter's regress' says success needs reliability, which is only tested by success [Reiss/Sprenger]