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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Ptolemy's epicycles and Copernicus's heliocentrism both saved identical ancient phenomena, proving underdetermination is not merely hypothetical.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The models were not truly empirically equivalent: heliocentrism made novel predictions (stellar parallax, phases of Venus) later confirmed.
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    • 2.Underdetermination requires genuine theoretical equivalence; epicycles required continuous ad-hoc additions while heliocentrism unified phenomena.
      ?

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    • 3.Historical acceptance of heliocentrism resulted from increasing predictive power and scope, not merely non-empirical factors.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Both models predicted identical observable positions of celestial bodies for centuries, making empirical data alone insufficient to choose between them.
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    • 2.This historical case demonstrates underdetermination is not just theoretical but manifested in actual scientific practice and acceptance.
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    • 3.Additional metaphysical commitments (simplicity, elegance) rather than data drove the eventual shift toward heliocentrism.
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