Research Paper on:
Refutations and Conjectures

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
research and discovery. Contrary to the then-popular belief, which insisted on confirmation as a viable basis for proof, Popper, instead, believed that falsification was the way to test a theory  or hypothesis. Although Popper came up with his theory in 1919, and although he died in 1994, his comments about conjecture and refutation are still debated in scientific and philosophical  circles today. Although there still exist Popperians who totally support the philosophers theory of conjecture and refutation and falsification, the philosophy communities are, for the most part, attempting to falsify  Poppers own theories, an ironic touch he would have appreciated. Sir Karl Popper the British philosopher who was born in Vienna, Austria,  was considered by many to be one of the 20th centurys most famous philosophers, if not one of the centurys most skeptical ones (Barnhart, 1996). A self-described agnostic, Popper first  made waves with his theory of falsification as opposed to induction and verification during the 1920s (Barnhart, 1996). His argument was that the job of scientific research and experimentation wasnt  to seek evidence to support a hypothesis, but rather, to find evidence to refute one - hence the postulations behind conjecture and then refuting specific theories (Barnhart, 1996). Finding evidence  to favor a theory, Popper believed, was taking the easy way out; only by finding a theorys flaws and weaknesses could it be considered true or false (Barnhart, 1996).  The main thing that Popper is remembered for is his belief that science is not performed by "induction," - in other words, by  finding evidence to confirm a conjecture - but rather, by rejection or refutation (Ringer, 2001). The researcher, therefore, is better off spending time falsifying bold and risky conjectures rather than