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The distinction is explained two paragraphs above the quote: "She argues that while the epistemic motivation for doing experiments on C. elegans might be quite far-reaching, the proper epistemic t …

Popper followed logical positivists (despite arguing with them on other issues) in separating “statements of empirical science from non-empirical statements”, the so-called demarcation. Therefore valu …

I think one can talk about "the" scientific method as long as it is understood that it is a broad outline rather than anything like a clear prescription. Specific sciences in specific periods provide …

Einstein's quote is reported by Heisenberg in Theory, Criticism and a Philosophy. It is clear from the context that Heisenberg subscribed to a kind of positivist Machian philosophy according to which …

Underdetermination of theory by evidence, explored in great detail by Quine, means that from finitely many observations and measurements, that we are able to make by any point in time, even combined w …

The answer depends on the meaning of "really". The structure of Meditations is that Descartes sets out to doubt everything, no holes barred. At this point he is presumably doubting the existence of Go …

Quine does not subscribe to scientism, i.e. the epistemological primacy of the scientific method, but he is often taken to because his repudiation of scientism is non-traditional. Quine does consign e …

That is what positivists and Popper would (and did) say. But in his own view Feyerabend is not confusing them, he is dissolving the distinction. And he was standing on the shoulders of giants. The co …

This point of view is better reflected if we change "observation" to "experiment" in the title, mere observation is more analogous to conjecture, so it may be somewhat misleading. This is how Jaffe an …

If testable is interpreted as it is usually interpreted in science at least two conditions will have to be met. First, the supernatural would have to be recurrent and/or reproducible, either we can ob …