1. Consistency: Lack of internal contradictions.
Examples:
If demand increases while supply is fixed, prices rise.
In a growing economy, demand usually increases.
Prices in a growing economy will always remain stable.
➡️ Each proposition sounds plausible in isolation. But taken together, the third contradicts the causal relationship between supply, demand, and price in the first.
All species adapt to their environment over time.
The coelacanth species has remained unchanged for millions of years.
The coelacanth has continuously adapted to its environment.
➡️ The inconsistency is subtle: if the species has remained “unchanged,” how can it also have “continuously adapted”? The tension lies in how “adaptation” and “unchanged” are interpreted.
2. Simplicity: Quality of relying on only a small number of assumptions.
Example: Astronomy (Heliocentrism vs. Geocentrism)
Simple model: The planets, including Earth, orbit the Sun in predictable paths.
Assumptions: Only one main principle — the Sun is at the center.
👉 Compared to the older geocentric model (which required dozens of extra assumptions like epicycles and deferents), heliocentrism is simpler because it explains planetary motion with fewer rules.
3. Scope: The number of diverse phenomena observed.
Example: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
Scope: Explains a wide range of biological phenomena — the diversity of species, fossil records, antibiotic resistance, similarities in DNA, and adaptations like camouflage or mimicry.
One principle (natural selection) accounts for phenomena from finch beaks in the Galápagos to bacteria evolving in a lab.
4. Conservatism: Quality of fitting well with existing theories.
Example: Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity
Conservatism: General relativity fits well with the well-established framework of Newtonian physics in everyday conditions.
Where gravitational fields are weak and speeds are much less than light, Einstein’s equations reduce to Newton’s law of gravitation.
Thus, relativity did not discard Newtonian mechanics but absorbed it as a special case, while extending the theory to explain phenomena like the bending of light near the Sun or the precession of Mercury’s orbit.
👉 This is conservatism in action: a new theory doesn’t overthrow everything before it, but integrates past successes while going further.
5. Fruitfulness: The number of new facts predicted of problems solved.
Example: The Structure of DNA (Watson & Crick, 1953)
Fruitfulness: The double-helix model of DNA was not just a description of molecular structure — it opened the door to new predictions and discoveries.
From it followed four important consequences:
1. How genetic information is copied (DNA replication).
2. How mutations occur.
3. How genetic coding translates into proteins.
4. Techniques like DNA sequencing, genetic engineering, and forensic DNA analysis.
👉 A single theoretical insight (the double helix) led to a cascade of new facts, experiments, and applications across biology, medicine, and technology.
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