Re: hypothesis/theory (was Negative effects of using coconut oil internally)

[Guest guest]

> >> what's the difference between an hypothesis and a theory... : -)

> >

> >According to a dictionary, they may be equivalent.

>

> In terms of science, my understanding is that a hypothesis is an

untested

> idea and that a theory is based on a tested hypothesis. But there

are

> multiple definitions of each. However, that's the general

difference as I

> understand it.

I see a theory as an overarching framework through which observations

are interpreted and explained. I see a hypothesis as a specific

explanation of something-- a kind of sub-theory, if you will-- from

which predictions can be drawn, which in turn can be tested. I don't

think that testing changes a hypothesis's status as a hypothesis, and

technically you can't really test a hypothesis directly, but can only

test the predictions you make from it.

I don't really think of hypotheses and theories as in any way

interchangeable, but now that I've tried to define them the

difference doesn't seem so clear. Maybe theories are just bigger

than hypotheses.

So, you could adhere to a particular theory of the rate of biological

evolution-- say, punctuated equilibria. Then you could conceive of

many different potential hypotheses within that theory. You could

develop a hypothesis within that framework that between historical

events x and z we would expect to find static period y with such-and-

such degree of variation for population a of organism A. That

hypothesis can specifically be validated or invalidated by testing

predictions drawn from it, and the results might affect our view of

the overarching theory within which the hypothesis was developed. I

don't think anyone would use the words " theory " and " hypothesis "

interchangeably here.

Chris