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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.The question of scientific underdeterminism is not identical to the question of conclusive theory assessment but they are related. If theory selection were a deterministic process, then there would be no possibility that any theory selection process could result in an inconclusive assessment. Only if theory selection were underdetermined by the empirical evidence, would

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]] The question In modern philosophy of science, [[Karl Popper]] and [[Imre Lakatos]] believed in scientific determinism is not identical to . In the question of conclusive theory assessment but they are relatedpresent day, physicist Stephen Weinberg believes in scientific determinism. If sci