All areas of science put forward questions about differing ideas and follow a process in order to try and obtain the answers. This process may include observation in order to make a hypothesis, designing the experiment which will test your prediction, controlling the variables and interpreting the data before rejecting or accepting your hypothesis. This is an example of a simplified scientific process.
Throughout history many individuals have come up with ideas in which they feel is the correct scientific process. To name a few Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and the Logical Empiricism idea. Despite being on the same subject, these three have particularly differing view points on what is right and what is wrong.
Logical empiricism claims that all knowledge is derived from our experiences and if a statement is made that cannot be connected to experience then that statement should be rejected as meaningless. Therefore, their view is that we are born without any kind of knowledge and only gain it through experiencing things first hand. It classifies everything, including the external world as theoretical.
Induction is the part of logical empiricism that moves from the specific to the general. Induction states that observation statements forming generalisations must be large; observations must be repeated and no accepted statement should clash with an already existing universal law. Thus by this process we have theories, generalisations, scientific laws etc. However, criticisms have arisen from this process of induction with people claiming is not logically justifiable.
Logical empiricism takes a conservative view and often finds itself turning blind to alternative explanations and theories. They attempted to simplify things to far with sense experience and logic being their simplified answer.
In the documentary Ulcer Wars logical empiricism is a small but key element to the study in which Doctor Barry Marshall involves himself in. Marshall found bacteria in the...