Samir Okasha Quotes
From a philosophical point of view, Leibniz's most interesting argument was that absolute space conflicted with what he called the principle of the identity of indiscernibles (PII). PII says that if two objects are indiscernible, then they are identical, i.e. they are really one and t . . . Read more

-Samir Okasha
Simpler theories may be more convenient to work with, but they are not intrinsically more probable than complex ones.

-Samir Okasha
Download
The word 'proof' should strictly only be used when we are dealing with deductive inferences.... Popper claimed that scientists only need to use deductive inferences.... So if a scientist is only interested in demonstrating that a given theory is false, she may be able to accomplish he . . . Read more

-Samir Okasha
The failure of Popper's demarcation criterion throws up an important question. Is it actually possible to find some common feature shared by all the things we call 'science...'? It may be that they share some fixed set of features that define what it is to be science, but it may not.. . . . Read more

-Samir Okasha
Firstly, it meant that the issue between competing paradigms could not be resolved by simply appealing to ‘the data’ or ‘the facts’, for what a scientist counts as data, or facts, will depend on which paradigm she accepts. Perfectly objective choice between two paradigms is th . . . Read more

-Samir Okasha
However, the observed orbit of Uranus consistently differed from what Newton’s theory predicted. This puzzle was solved in 1846 by two scientists, Adams in England and Leverrier in France, working independently. They suggested that there was another planet, as yet undiscovered, exer . . . Read more

-Samir Okasha
It has been argued that close attention to the history of science is indispensable for doing good philosophy of science.

-Samir Okasha
Download