A rejected theory still earns the stated scientific standard
State explicit criteria for accepting or revising an account early, then invoke those same criteria when assessing later rival accounts and the author’s preferred explanation.
A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking · 112 weeksA rejected theory still earns the stated scientific standard
SHORT SOURCE EXCERPT“good scientific theory”
The steady-state theory is explicitly credited with simplicity and testable predictions in the Chapter 1 sense. The discussion then connects radio-source counts and microwave radiation to predictions the theory did not meet.
Applying the standard to a rival separates a good investigable theory from a theory the book ultimately accepts.
The source in context.
Measurements of stars and galaxies lead to expansion and alternative cosmic models. Rival attempts to avoid a beginning culminate in Hawking’s account of singularity theorems, whose assumptions also expose the need for quantum physics.
Open this chapterWhat this example supports
Applying the standard to a rival separates a good investigable theory from a theory the book ultimately accepts.
Its limit
The observational and historical account is Hawking’s compressed narration; the study does not independently check the underlying surveys.
Source & edition
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time; supplied updated local ebook text; copyright 1988 and 1996, publishing history lists 1998 Bantam editions; eISBN 9780553896923. Includes the added chapter on wormholes and time travel.
Supplied text, lines 407–407. The short quotation is checked against the source.
The completed whole-source AI synthesis supplied candidate observations and the broad argument map. This Codex editorial pass checked original source headings, section boundaries, openings and selected argumentative contexts; inspected every retained example; checked the existing pattern dictionary and base examples; and rewrote or rejected nominations. It is a source-checked editorial pass, not a new independently adjudicated whole-book reading.
supplied updated local ebook text; copyright 1988 and 1996, publishing history lists 1998 Bantam editions; eISBN 9780553896923. Includes the added chapter on wormholes and time travel