Hypothetico-Deductivism
Created @May 6, 2022 12:35 AM
Class
Type
Materials
Reviewed
We need evidencince→ impossible to gather all the evidence → variable can throw
something off
Carl Gustav Hempel
Semmelweis’s Story
Maternity divison - ward 1 - 11.4% death rate vs ward 2 2.7% rate
Various possible explanations:
1. Epidemic influences
2. Overcrowding
3. Diet
4. General Care
5. Injuries from rough examinations - medical students in ward 1
6. Terrorizing effect of last rite’s priest’s bell
Semmelweis evaluates and rules out each explanation
Colleage died after puncturing finger during autopsy
→ Matter from corpse killed colleauge
Hypothetico-Deductivism 1
, → Similar symptoms as women’s death
→ Students went from autopsy to pregnant women
→ blood poisoning from corpse matter to pregnant women
→ Students wash hands with chlorinated solution, Death rate decreases
Hempels’ critique of inductivism:
Inductivism:
1. Collect facts
2. classification and tabulation
3. Inductive inference to correct explantions
Problems:
1. Collection of all facts is impossible - must find relevant facts
Can’t distinguish important circumstances
Tentative Hypothesis (proposed answer) directs which facts are important
2. Sets of facts can be classified in a multitude of ways that are irrelevant
The Hypothesis, once again, guides the classification of facts
3. The correct result cannot be a result of inductive generalizations on observed
correlations of facts alone
The correct hypthesis cannot be found by inductive inference
Solution → Hypothetico-Deductivism
Hypothetico-Deductivism 2
Created @May 6, 2022 12:35 AM
Class
Type
Materials
Reviewed
We need evidencince→ impossible to gather all the evidence → variable can throw
something off
Carl Gustav Hempel
Semmelweis’s Story
Maternity divison - ward 1 - 11.4% death rate vs ward 2 2.7% rate
Various possible explanations:
1. Epidemic influences
2. Overcrowding
3. Diet
4. General Care
5. Injuries from rough examinations - medical students in ward 1
6. Terrorizing effect of last rite’s priest’s bell
Semmelweis evaluates and rules out each explanation
Colleage died after puncturing finger during autopsy
→ Matter from corpse killed colleauge
Hypothetico-Deductivism 1
, → Similar symptoms as women’s death
→ Students went from autopsy to pregnant women
→ blood poisoning from corpse matter to pregnant women
→ Students wash hands with chlorinated solution, Death rate decreases
Hempels’ critique of inductivism:
Inductivism:
1. Collect facts
2. classification and tabulation
3. Inductive inference to correct explantions
Problems:
1. Collection of all facts is impossible - must find relevant facts
Can’t distinguish important circumstances
Tentative Hypothesis (proposed answer) directs which facts are important
2. Sets of facts can be classified in a multitude of ways that are irrelevant
The Hypothesis, once again, guides the classification of facts
3. The correct result cannot be a result of inductive generalizations on observed
correlations of facts alone
The correct hypthesis cannot be found by inductive inference
Solution → Hypothetico-Deductivism
Hypothetico-Deductivism 2
