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Mechanism of Theory Rejection (view source)
Revision as of 00:40, 4 December 2018
, 00:40, 4 December 2018no edit summary
|Topic Type=Descriptive
|Description=Theory rejection is a necessary part of [[Mechanism of Scientific Change|scientific change]]. Any theory of scientific change requires a means to explain how a theory becomes rejected.
It is clear that theory rejection exists in the history of science. Numerous examples can be found in the history of science. In [[Theory Rejection theorem (Barseghyan-2015)]], we provided theories that explain the potential reasons behind theory rejection.
The earliest example of theory change can be traced back to the Aristotelian-medieval community. Theories in the community were constantly replaced until the end of the 17th century. [[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p. 210]]
For example, judicial astrology was removed from the Aristotelian-medieval community because it contradicts the idea of free will developed by Christian scientists. Theories like geocentrism were replaced by heliocentrism developed by scientists like Nicolaus Copernicus. Even further, by circa 1700, the entire Aristotelian system was replaced by Newtonian and Cartesian physics.[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|p. 210]]
Another typical example of theory rejection is the rejection of the phlogiston theory. After Georg Ernst Stahl introduced the theory, the theory had undergone several modifications to make the existence of phlogiston plausible.[[CiteRef::Weisberg et al. (Eds.) (2016)|''Philosophy of Chemistry'']] However, during the Chemical Revolution, as Antoine Lavoisier reviewed several experimental results that contradict the existence of phlogiston, he removed phlogiston from the scientific mosaic at the time, in order to simplify those experimental results.[[CiteRef::Weisberg et al. (Eds.) (2016)|''Philosophy of Chemistry'']]
|Parent Topic=Mechanism of Scientific Change
|Authors List=Hakob Barseghyan,
