A theory is never proven in the sciences. Inductive reasoning is not a proof.
If you want proof you have to go to mathematics. Deductive reasoning provides a proof.
“If you want proof you have to go to mathematics. Deductive reasoning provides a proof.”
So you do not think the possibility of heavier-than-air human flight has been proven? It certainly wasn’t proved by mathematics. It was proved my demonstration.
I’m afraid you’ve been taken in by the logical postivists, and their mystic concept of “proof.”
I never mentioned “inductive” reason (of which there really is no such thing).
The concept of coherent light was a hypothesis for a long time. The idea of stimulated light emission was introuduced by Einstein in 1905. For years the concept of coherent light was discussed and patents taken out, but it was never proven. It was not until 1960 that the concept of coherent stimulated light was proved, not by mathematics, but a working model created by Theodore Maiman. The hypothesis of coherent light, we now call lasers, was proved, and it is now a proven workable theory.
You, like so many others influenced by the academic perversions of logical positivism, linguistic analysis, and postmodernism, have swallowed the skepticism inflicted on every academic discipline by Hume and Kant. I do not blame you. I would like to help you overcome them, but that is up to you.
Hank
Unless I'm mistaken, theories are proven as fact when demonstrated through exeriments that can be duplicated.