#95 (C&R Chap 10, Part II) - A Problem-First View of Scientific Progress

#95 (C&R Chap 10, Part II) - A Problem-First View of Scientific Progress

From Increments by Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani

November 29, 2025 · 58 min

About this episode

The hosts discuss Popper's theories and their implications for scientific progress, while navigating their disagreements.

After a long hiatus where we both saw grief counsellors over our fight about Popper's theory of content in the last C&R episode, we are back. And we're ready to play nice ... for about 30 seconds until Vaden admits that two sentences from Popper changed his mind about something Ben had arguing for literally years. But eventually putting those disagreements aside, we return to the subject at hand: The Conjectures and Refutations Series: Chapter 10: Truth, Rationality, and the Growth of Scientific Knowledge (Part II). Here all goes smoothly. Just kidding, we start fighting about content again almost immediately. Where are the guests to break us up when you need them. We discuss Why Vaden changed his mind about "all thought is problem solving" Something that rhymes with wero horship Is Popper sloppy when it comes to writing about probability and content Is all modern data science based on the wrong idea? (Hint: No) Popper's problem-focused view of scientific progress How much formalization is too much? The difference between high verisimilitude and high probability Why do we value simplicity in science? Historical examples of science progressing via theories with increasing…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ben Chugg, Vaden Masrani

Topics covered

  • scientific progress
  • philosophy of science
  • problem-solving
  • theory and content
  • data science
  • rationality

Keywords

  • Popper
  • scientific knowledge
  • problem-focused view
  • verisimilitude
  • simplicity in science
  • data science
  • theories

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