Lakatos: Science and Pseudoscience

Menaus

The problem of demarcation between science and pseudoscience is important and very relevant to what Distinti is doing. I think establishing the boundary is one of the biggest problems in philosophy of science that remains unresolved and forgotten, partly due to many scientists' rejection of it. Regardless, I think Lakatos advances demarcation importantly, to the degree which should allow us to question things like String Theory, which by Distinti's demarcation hypothesis (that our modus operandi is to prove theories false) are inexorably true since they are effectively unfalsifiable. String Theory has made a number of predictions which require, obviously, experiments to test them. But even while these experiments are carried out and have given negative results, it is easy to adjust free constants and thus render a new test required which is wholly the same save for the increase in energy levels, for instance. String Theory is therefore effectively unfalsifiable, although entirely falsifiable in the immediate sense, and as mentioned before must be Truth. I believe this conclusion is flawed. In light of this, I present Lakatos' lecture, which would allow us to properly consider String Theory.

http://richmedia.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/2 ... nce128.mp3