Editing Hypothetico-deductive model (section)

==Example==
{{main|Scientific method}}
One example of an algorithmic statement of the hypothetico-deductive method is as follows:<ref>Peter Godfrey-Smith (2003) ''Theory and Reality'', p. 236.</ref>

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:'''''1'''''. Use your experience: Consider the problem and try to make sense of it. Gather data and look for previous explanations. If this is a new problem to you, then move to step&nbsp;'''''2'''''.
:'''''2'''''. Form a conjecture ([[hypothesis]]): When nothing else is yet known, try to state an explanation, to someone else, or to your notebook.
:'''''3'''''. Deduce predictions from the hypothesis: if you assume&nbsp;'''''2''''' is true, what consequences follow?
:'''''4'''''. Test (or [[experiment]]): Look for evidence (observations) that conflict with these predictions in order to disprove&nbsp;'''''2'''''. It is a fallacy or error in one's reasoning  to seek &nbsp;'''''3''''' directly as proof of&nbsp;'''''2'''''. This [[formal fallacy]] is called ''[[affirming the consequent]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Taleb|2007}} e.g., p. 58, devotes his chapter 5 to ''the error of confirmation''.</ref>
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One possible sequence in this model would be '''''1''''', '''''2''''', '''''3''''', '''''4'''''. If the outcome of '''''4''''' holds, and '''''3''''' is not yet disproven, you may continue with '''''3''''', '''''4''''', '''''1''''', and so forth; but if the outcome of '''''4''''' shows '''''3''''' to be false, you will have to go back to '''''2''''' and try to invent a '''''new 2''''', deduce a '''''new 3''''', look for '''''4''''', and so forth.

Note that this method can never absolutely '''verify''' (prove the truth of) '''''2'''''. It can only '''[[Falsifiability|falsify]]''' '''''2'''''.<ref>"I believe that we do not know anything for certain, but everything probably." —[[Christiaan Huygens]], Letter to Pierre Perrault, 'Sur la préface de M. Perrault de son traité del'Origine des fontaines' [1763], ''Oeuvres Complétes de Christiaan Huygens'' (1897), Vol. '''7''', 298. Quoted in Jacques Roger, ''The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought'', ed. Keith R. Benson and trans. Robert Ellrich (1997), 163. Quotation selected by {{harvnb|Bynum|Porter|2005|p=317}} Huygens 317#4.</ref> (This is what Einstein meant when he said, "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."<ref>As noted by Alice Calaprice (ed. 2005) ''The New Quotable Einstein'' Princeton University Press and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, {{ISBN|0-691-12074-9}} p. 291. Calaprice denotes this not as an exact quotation, but as a paraphrase of a translation of A. Einstein's "Induction and Deduction". ''Collected Papers of Albert Einstein'' '''7''' Document 28. Volume 7 is ''The Berlin Years: Writings, 1918-1921''. A. Einstein; M. Janssen, R. Schulmann, et al., eds.</ref>)