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Physics > History and Philosophy of Physics

arXiv:1609.01966 (physics)
[Submitted on 2 Sep 2016]

Title:The dangers of non-empirical confirmation

Authors:Carlo Rovelli
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    Abstract: In the book "String Theory and the Scientific Method",
    Richard Dawid describes a few of the many non-empirical arguments
    that motivate theoretical physicists' confidence in a theory,
    taking string theory as case study. I argue that excessive
    reliance on non-empirical evidence compromises the reliability of
    science, and that precisely the case of string theory well
    illustrates this danger.

          2 pages. Contribution to the meeting "Why Trust a Theory?
Comments: Reconsidering Scientific Methodology in Light of Modern
          Physics," Munich, Dec. 7-9, 2015
Subjects: History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph);
          General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
Cite as:  arXiv:1609.01966 [physics.hist-ph]
          (or arXiv:1609.01966v1 [physics.hist-ph] for this version)
          https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1609.01966
          Focus to learn more
          arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history

From: Carlo Rovelli [view email]
[v1] Fri, 2 Sep 2016 16:22:33 UTC (5 KB)
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