The German philosopher Carl G Hempel, in his beautiful and elegant treatise written in 1965, demonstrated that there were flaws in the long held scientific processes of inductive reasoning, generalization, and falsifiability of logic as it is commonly understood and practised.
The background of inductive reasoning: Hempel used raven as a central point of his argument against the long held pattern of scientific reasoning and he used the following example: Imagine that you had taken a long walk as a scientist and you happened to see a raven that you noted to be black, you might make your comment and say, ‘’I saw a black raven.’’ If sometimes after that you noticed a few more ravens that were black, you might say ‘’what a perfect coincidence, these other ravens are black too.’’ If time passed by and in your adventure you happened to see more ravens that were black, the chances are that you could say ‘’this is much more that coincidence’’ and with the instincts and natural practice of an observant scientist, you therefore form a hypothesis ‘’All ravens are black.’’
Continue reading