Your English writing platform
Discover LudwigDictionary
underdetermination
noun
The state or quality of being underdetermined
Exact(60)
While accepting the contrary evidence, serious scientists may well hold on to a false theory, whether from unscientific prejudice, from a kind of theoretical inertia or from an honest misappraisal of the evidence as a whole.For those expecting certainty from science there is more bad news in the form of a related problem known as "underdetermination of theory by data".
A theoretical underdetermination threatens once again.
Quine is often thought to accept underdetermination.
First, consider the Argument from Underdetermination.
It's not about underdetermination.
Instead one might appeal to broadly methodological factors to break the underdetermination.
This takes us to a further possible response to the above metaphysical underdetermination which urges realism to retreat from a metaphysics of objects and develop an ontology of structure compatible with the physics (Ladyman 1998 and 2009).
Mention has already been made of Schlick's defense of an underdetermination thesis based on his doctrine of truth as unambiguous coordination.
Contrastive underdetermination is so-called because it questions the ability of the evidence to confirm any given hypothesis against alternatives, and the central focus of discussion in this connection (equally often regarded as "the" problem of underdetermination) concerns the character of the supposed alternatives.
Of course, generating and testing fundamental scientific hypotheses is rarely if ever a matter of finding curves that fit collections of data points, so nothing follows directly from this mathematical analogy for the significance of contrastive underdetermination in most scientific contexts.
And in all of these respects, Laudan claims, partisans have defended only the weaker forms of underdetermination while founding their further claims about and conceptions of the scientific enterprise on versions much stronger than those they have managed or even attempted to defend.
Write better and faster with AI suggestions while staying true to your unique style.
Since I tried Ludwig back in 2017, I have been constantly using it in both editing and translation. Ever since, I suggest it to my translators at ProSciEditing.

Justyna Jupowicz-Kozak
CEO of Professional Science Editing for Scientists @ prosciediting.com