The Nature of Scientific Proof in the Age of Simulations

摘要

Empiricism lies at the heart of the scientific method. It seeks to understand the world through experiment and experience. This cycle of formulating and testing falsifiable hypotheses has amalgamated with a modern form of rationalism-the use of reasoning, mathematics, and logic to understand nature. These schools of thought are couched in centuries of history and, until recently, remained largely distinct. Proponents of empiricism include the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume, who believed in a subjective, sensory-based perception of the world. Rationalism is the belief that the use of reasoning alone is sufficient to understand the natural world, without any recourse to experiment. Its roots may be traced to the Greek philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Pythagoras; its more modern proponents include Kant, Leibniz, and Descartes.