David Deutsch: Theory

“Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense…”

David Deutsch book The Fabric of Reality

The Fabric of Reality (1997)

Sense

“The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.”

David Deutsch book The Fabric of Reality

The Fabric of Reality (1997)

“To say that prediction is the purpose of a scientific theory is to confuse means with ends. It is like saying that the purpose of a spaceship is to burn fuel. … Passing experimental tests is only one of many things a theory has to do to achieve the real purpose of science, which is to explain the world.”

David Deutsch book The Fabric of Reality

Source: The Fabric of Reality (1997), Ch. 1

World , Science

“The quantum theory of parallel universes is not the problem, it is the solution.”

David Deutsch book The Fabric of Reality

Source: The Fabric of Reality (1997), Ch. 2
Context: The quantum theory of parallel universes is not the problem, it is the solution. It is not some troublesome, optional interpretation emerging from arcane theoretical considerations. It is the explanation—the only one that is tenable—of a remarkable and counter-intuitive reality.

Problem , Universe

“To say that prediction is the purpose of a scientific theory is to confuse means with ends. It is like saying that the purpose of a spaceship is to burn fuel.”

David Deutsch book The Fabric of Reality

Source: The Fabric of Reality (1997), Ch. 1
Context: To say that prediction is the purpose of a scientific theory is to confuse means with ends. It is like saying that the purpose of a spaceship is to burn fuel. … Passing experimental tests is only one of many things a theory has to do to achieve the real purpose of science, which is to explain the world.

“The rational thing for a layperson to do is to take seriously the prevailing scientific theory.”

David Deutsch

TED Talks

“Kuhn's theory suffers from a fatal flaw. It explains the succession from one paradigm to another in sociological or psychological terms, rather than as having primarily to do with the objective merit of the rival explanations. Yet unless one understands science as a quest for explanations, the fact that it does find successive explanations, each objectively better than the last, is inexplicable.”

David Deutsch book The Fabric of Reality

Source: The Fabric of Reality (1997), Ch. 13; commentary on the ideas of Thomas Kuhn, as presented in the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Understanding , Suffering , Science , Success

“The truly privileged theories are not the ones referring to any particular scale of size or complexity, nor the ones situated at any particular level of the predictive hierarchy—but the ones that contain the deepest explanations.”

David Deutsch book The Fabric of Reality

The Fabric of Reality (1997)