Hypothetico-Deductive Model Essay

The hypothetico-deductive model developed by Hempel tried to fill in the huge gaps of narrow inductivism without doing away with objectivity. The model called for a working hypothesis in a conditional form before anything else is done. Conditional form refers to a hypothesis in the format: if x, then y. Hempel was not really concerned with how it was formulated, he called this part of the model the context of discovery. The hypothesis could have came from observations, mistakes in the lab, or spiritual visions, Hempel was not bothered by this. Following the context of discovery was the context of justification where the model said to predict the outcomes of the hypothesis. Only after deducing the predictions could the hypothesis be tested in

Semmelweis’ story is a good example of what Hempel envisioned. Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor in Vienna, was perplexed with the childbed fever and the cause of it (Davis,”The Doctor Who Championed Hand-Washing"). The fever affected woman who had just given birth and most of them died within 24 hours of contracting the fever. Using one of the doctor’s examples, Semmelweis hypothesized that women were getting sick because of the trauma they endured whenever a priest walked through the wards ringing a bell signaling a death caused by childbed fever. In a conditional form hypothesis, Semmelweis was stating that if a priest walks a through a ward ringing his bell of death, then women who have just given birth are terrified to the point where they get sick. Advancing to the context of justification, the doctor deduced that moving the priest’s route and not ringing the bell would mean less childbed fever cases. Semmelweis then tested his hypothesis to see if his predictions would be confirmed, however it turned out that the priest’s changed route had no effect on the women at all making his predictions false. Of course, Semmelweis eventually came to the conclusion of handwashing after using the same model of the hypothetico deductive, but by changing his working hypothesis. This example clearly illustrates that Hempel’s model is how science is actually conducted, not necessarily how Descartes and Bacon had

Naive inductivism or good science, says to observe and record all the data. This first step alone is an immense task that in fact impossible to accomplish. Using the example from essay one, before doing anything, Dr. Semmelweis would have had to record every single fact about the women who were infected with the fever. This data could have included the women’s diet, their health prior to being pregnant, their home environment, weather conditions when the women were infected, etc. The point being that all the data about the women would have to be recorded and this would take a long time making naive inductivism weak before even looking at its other