Scientific Theories
In the scientific world, experiments and various types of studies are used to compile a collection of data and results. According to the scientific method, the data obtained from experiments used to explain a hypothesis must able to be repeated in order to conclude any validity to the final claims or results. Furthermore, the scientific method also require that scientists share their findings and made public for the purpose of reproducing the results of the experiment to further establish scientific fact. Scientific theories are the overall collection of data, results, and observations formed together to establish an amalgamation of concepts. This collection of concepts is then subject to scientific law in order express the relationships of observations of those concepts. It is constructed in such a form to adhere to the data of observations and established as a principle for explaining a particular type of phenomena. In simpler terms, a scientific theory is an explanation, that even though results can be duplicated to establish the validity of observations and findings in an experiment, is still up to speculation; a scientific theory therefore becomes the utmost representative when relating to actual fact, and is considered the best explanation until proven otherwise.
Scientific theories, therefore, exist to explain and predict the occurrence of a certain phenomena. Scientific theory is to act as representation or model of reality. The purpose is ultimately to create a formal system where the scientific model is to act as the closest explanation to the actual truth, so as to have some semblance of reality. An example as to how scientific theories act as the best explanation to the truth or reality can be explained through historical evidence. Ptolemy was the Greek astronomer that proposed the theory that earth was at the center of the universe, and the rest of the planets and sun around the earth. Through mathematical calculations, Ptolemy was then able to predict where the planets would in relation to his proposed explanation. This is also known as the Geocentric Theory, and was regarded as scientific fact for a quite some time. It was not until Copernicus introduced his own scientific theory–the Heliocentric Theory–that introduced the sun as the center of the universe, of which the rest of the stars orbited. As people have come to known, the Heliocentric Theory is the one has been regarded as the truest representation of our known universe. This example serves to illustrate how theories, even though they are regarded as the closest representation of truth, are susceptible to have fallacy. Scientific theories are only mere representations of the truth; if a more acceptable theory is devised, it may replace or modify an older theory. Because science is the study of an imperfect world and its natural occurrence and phenomena, it can never offer an exact or absolute truth to explain the actual reality of things. However, scientific theories allow for a basis to which bestow the closest thing to reality or truth in order to have a systemic approach to investigating such phenomena.