Concept Summary Chapter 2 People believe many things. The use of the scientific method presupposes that the testing of beliefs is the first step in this process. To have any credibility beliefs must be vulnerable to disproof.
Scientific method assumes the epistemology of empiricism to be valid.
To test knowledge claims the logical implications of each belief must be checked with public observations of what takes place in the world. Scientists believe many strange things, but not without good reasons. Hence, no scientific explanation can be known to be true absolutely. The goal is to be pragmatic and obtain beliefs that have a reasonable chance of being true based on their track record of success in passing rigorous tests. The field of epistemology, the study of knowledge, is most often associated with philosophical interest in science.