Did Duhem Show That Scientific Theories Can Be Neither True

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that a physical theory is simply an abstract system to classify and summarize a group of laws.
Taking the first possibility (a belief still held by many today): this seeks to look beneath the sensible appearances and find the reality beneath, which is causing the sensations we experience. However, this presents us with a problem. We only have access to perceptions so how can we hope to find a physical theory that provides a certain explanation of the reality causing these sensations? A theory can only suggest a reality that would produce all those perceptions on which our experimental laws are based. In that sense it becomes just a hypothetical explanation.
A perfect physical theory, as described, aims to describe the reality of the material things whose properties we perceive. Therefore we are inexorably lead to the conclusion that in order for a physical theory to provide an explanation we must first understand the nature of material reality. This of course assumes that there is ...

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if by truth we mean the nature of reality, then we can never know a physical theory to be true.


So how should we define a physical theory? We need a definition that would be acceptable to all and a method that would allow construction of a theory without the use of principles that it could not legitimately use.

Duhem defined such a theory as: "…a system of mathematical propositions, deduced from a small number of principles, which aim to represent as simply, as completely, and as exactly as possible a set of experimental laws."

He broke down the formation of such a theory into four steps:

1) The definition and measurement of physical magnitudes. This is essentially the ...

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