Suppose you are interested in the question of how often your philosophy professor says “umm”. According to one hypothesis (A) changes in the rate at which he umms are caused by changes in air temperature (via a temperature sensitive brain area). According to Hempel, in order to test an empirical hypothesis it is necessary to derive test implications from that hypothesis. What is a test implication? How are test implications relevant to hypothesis testing? State at least one test implication of hypothesis A and explain how you derived it from the hypothesis. What is the role of auxiliary hypotheses in deriving test implications? Does your derivation depend on any auxiliary hypotheses? Describe how you could test hypothesis A using one of the test implications you have derived from it.
Suppose that the test is successful in that the prediction made by the test implication is true. Does that show that the test implication is true? Why or why not? Does that show that the hypothesis is true? Why or why not? Suppose the test is unsuccessful in that the prediction is false. Does that show that the test implication is false? Does that show that the hypothesis is false? Make sure to discuss the role of auxiliary hypotheses in testing hypotheses.
Consider another hypothesis (B) according to which changes in the rate at which your professor ummms are caused by changes in the environmental light level (via a light sensitive brain area). Describe a crucial test of these two hypotheses. Will the result of this test prove that one hypothesis is correct and the other wrong?
