The End of Science

4. Why did Karl Popper find the use of observation in scientific inquiry as 'ludicrous?'  According to Popper, what should begin a scientific investigation?
He says, "Observation is always selective. It needs a chosen object, a definite task, an interest, a point of view, a problem." Popper suggests that a scientific investigation should begin instead with a hypothesis, "for without a hypothesis to guide research, scientists would have no way of distinguishing relevant from irrelevant data.

5. Why did Popper view Science as an "attempt to falsify rather than verify hypotheses?"
He thinks this becuase, "NO universal generalization can be conclusively confirmed, for we can never be sure that we have examined all the relevant data. It is always possible that we will discover something that will overturn even the most well established theory.

7. What were some criticisms of Popper?
Hypotheses can no more be conclusively falsified than they can be conclusively verified, for a hypothesis cannot be tested in isolation. If a test fails, it is always possible to maintain the hypothesis in question by rejecting one or more of the background assumptions. Popper's demarcation criterion is too weak to distinguish science from pseudoscience. If a theory is scientific as long as there is some possible state of affairs whose actual occurrence would refute the theory, then many seeming non-scientific theories would gain, :scientific status."

9. What does Kuhn mean by a 'paradigm shift?'
"Kuhn and Feyerabend see science primarily as a puzzle-solving exercise. The rules for solving particular puzzles are contained in a paradigm. A paradigm defines for scientists what sorts of puzzles are worth solving and what sorts of methods will solve them. From time to time, however, certain puzzles or "anomalies" arise that cannot be solved with the existing paradigm. When the cognitive dissonance created by these puzzles becomes too great, the scientific community undergoes a "paradigm shift." 

10. What are the implications of the statement: "There is no truth with a capital T" in Science?
It means that nothing in science is certain, things can never been depended upon because they can easily change. It suggests that maybe people should look to other AoK for Truth.