Important Information about Scientific Theories
Much of scientific inquiry is focused on developing and evaluating theories.
There are four major criteria that are used to evaluate theories:
1. Explains the past; predicts the future
2. Testable and falsifiable
3. Parsimonious
4. Promotes research
A) When evaluating a theory, which of these criteria do you think is the most important, the least important, and why?
B) Do all of these criteria need to be satisfied for the theory to be considered a valid or good theory?