Duhem-Quine Thesis

The Duhem-Quine thesis (or, more broadly, confirmatory holism) states that it is impossible to test a scientific hypothesis in isolation, for an empirical experiment requires assuming as truth one or more auxiliary hypotheses (also called background assumptions). The hypothesis in question is itself incapable of making predictions. In fact, the consequences of the hypothesis typically lie in the auxiliary hypotheses from which predictions are derived. The above prevents a theory from becoming conclusively falsifiable through empirical meanings if auxiliary hypotheses are not tested (since auxiliary hypotheses sometimes include one or more scientific theories). Thus, to disprove the idea that the Earth was moving some noticed that the birds did not alter in the sky when they took the flight from the branches of the trees. The "datum" is no longer accepted as empirical evidence to show that earthmoving is non-existent because we have adopted a different system of hypotheses in physics that allows us to make distinct predictions.

In this way, according to this thesis "Given enough imagination, any theory (consisting of one or a finite set of propositions) can be permanently saved from" refutation "by some suitable adjustment in the context of the knowledge that contains it" Imre Lakatos

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