Two eminent theoretical astrophysicists, George Ellis and Joe Silk, weigh in on the debate about the status of string theory as physics. This year, debates in physics circles took a worrying turn, they write in Nature. Faced with difficulties in applying fundamental theories to the observed Universe, some researchers called for a change in how theoretical physics is done. They began to argue — explicitly — that if a theory is sufficiently elegant and explanatory, it need not be tested experimentally, breaking with centuries of philosophical tradition of defining scientific knowledge as empirical. We disagree. As the philosopher of science Karl Popper argued: a theory must be falsifiable to be scientific.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 00:43:00 +0000
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