RE: Ad Hoc Hypothesis
October 19, 2010 at 3:08 pm
(This post was last modified: October 19, 2010 at 3:12 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(October 19, 2010 at 1:16 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: I've learned a new logical fallacy.
Wikipedia Article on Ad Hoc Hypothesis
Quote:In science and philosophy, an ad hoc hypothesis is a hypothesis added to a theory in order to save it from being falsified. Ad hoc hypothesizing is compensating for anomalies not anticipated by the theory in its unmodified form.
I used to mock these as "fudge factors" but now I've learned a more sophisticated term.
You mean making up shit as they go in the hope of laying down a road of shit that leads to the bible?
But seriously, the addition of ad hoc hypothesis is by itself not not necessarily without merit. An original hypothesis need not directly account for everything to have value. But the probability of the original hypothesis being basically correct decreases exponentially with increasing ratio of outcomes that require ad hoc hypothesis to explain. In rigourously defined cases in physics, one could calculate the decreased probability of the original case being correct with the addition of a an ad hoc hypothesis.
