Science needs more than empiricism (Image: Jan Vermeer/DEA/G. Dagli Orti)
What is the secret of science’s success in understanding our world? It’s to do with the quality of its explanations – though there is a twist in the tale
ONE of the most remarkable features of science is the contrast between the enormous power of its explanations and the parochial means by which we create them. No human has ever visited a star, yet we look at dots in the sky and know they are distant white-hot nuclear furnaces. Physically, that experience consists of nothing more than brains responding to electrical…
