WWKPD – A Popperian Tale Gone Wrong

WWKPD – A Popperian Tale Gone Wrong

Methodology & Epistemology in Cosmology Conference
by Siska De Baerdemaeker In February, UC Irvine hosted the Methodology and Epistemology in Cosmology Conference, an event that brought together physical scientists and philosophers of science to explore different areas in cosmology that call for methodological innovation, and the epistemological consequences thereof. At the conclusion of the conference, I could not help but think that Karl Popper would have had a field day if he had attended, for two reasons: Popper’s idea of falsifiability was often mentioned as at least one of the criteria for good scientific research, and many aspects of the current ‘Standard Model’ of cosmology (ΛCDM) easily lend themselves to a Popperian type of criticism. One debate in particular could, at first sight, be turned into a Popperian tale: the debate about dark matter.1 Introduced to…
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