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In science and philosophy, an ad hoc hypothesis is a hypothesis added to a theory in order to save it from being falsified.
For example, a person that wants to believe in leprechauns can avoid ever being proven wrong by using ad hoc hypotheses (e.g., by adding "they are invisible", then "their motives are complex", and so on).<ref name=Stanovich2007>Stanovich, Keith E. (2007). How to Think Straight About Psychology. Boston: Pearson Education. Pages 19-33</ref>
Often, ad hoc hypothesizing is employed to compensate for anomalies not anticipated by the theory in its unmodified form.
In the scientific communityEdit
Scientists are often skeptical of theories that rely on frequent, unsupported adjustments to sustain them. This is because, if a theorist so chooses, there is no limit to the number of ad hoc hypotheses that they could add. Thus the theory becomes more and more complex, but is never falsified. This is often at a cost to the theory's predictive power, however.<ref name="Stanovich2007"/> Ad hoc hypotheses are often characteristic of pseudoscientific subjects.<ref>Carroll, Robert T. "Ad hoc hypothesis." The Skeptic's Dictionary. 22 Jun. 2008 <http://skepdic.com/adhoc.html>.</ref>Template:Bettersource
Albert Einstein's addition of the cosmological constant to general relativity in order to allow a static universe was ad hoc. Although he later referred to it as his "greatest blunder", it may correspond to theories of dark energy.<ref>Texas A&M University. "Einstein's Biggest Blunder? Dark Energy May Be Consistent With Cosmological Constant." ScienceDaily 28 November 2007. 22 June 2008 <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071127142128.htm>.</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Ad hoc
- Fringe science
- Russell's teapot
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- No true Scotsman
- Special pleading
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- Proofs and Refutations
- "The Dragon in My Garage"
- Paraconsistent logic