The fourth week of my Scientific Inquiry–Theory & Inference course addresses the question “Why should we theorize,” or “What is the purpose of theory.” It is the first of a four week section on “Theory.” The Gordian Knot problem rears its head as I put off discussion of causal relations/causation until the fourth week of the “Theory” section. But weeks two and three establish a post-modern, constructivist foundation for the production of human knowledge, a small portion of which concerns regular patterns we collectively discern in the world: stylized facts.[1] This week’s readings build on the reading from week 3 on the failure of induction as a process for constructing explanations for those stylized facts, and the problems with verificationist and falsificationist accounts for explaining the success of scientific knowledge communities.
Fail.
Fudging a Definition of Theory
I am interested to learn how Nate addresses this,[2] but I began…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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