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|Prehistory=The question of "conclusive" theory assessment is historically closely related to the the question of scientific underdetermination. In brief, scientific theories are underdetermined when several competing theories are able to adequately explain the same empirical phenomenon.
Historically, the accepted view concerning theory acceptance was scientific determinism. This is the belief that theory assessment always provides a conclusive outcome. In other words, it was believed that theory choice is entirely determined by the empirical evidence that confronts science. [[Larry Laudan]] claims to be able to trace the concept of scientific determinism back to [[Gottfreid Leibniz]] but it is likely that Plato and Aristotle both held this belief. [[CiteRef::Laudan (1984) |pp. 26-39, 43-45, 62]]
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{{Acceptance Record
