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The Rationale of Reliability Prediction

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Software System Design Methods

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NATO ASI F,volume 22))

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Abstract

Rudolf Carnap (Ref 1) characterizes the activities of scientists as being part practical: they arrange experiments and make observations, and part theoretical: they formulate the results of observations into sentences, compare these results with those of other observers, try to explain them by a theory, endeavour to confirm the theory and make predictions by the use of this theory. Few scholars, including Carnap himself, accept this account as to how science is done as being anywhere near accurate. In fact, a number of philosophers e.g. Kuhn, Popper, Feyerabend, Lakatos have gained international reputations by pointing out that science does not progress in such an orderly manner. However Carnap’s picture closely relates to the popular myth of how scientific progress is achieved. The point of this account is not so much that it accounts for scientific progress but that it can serve to account for this progress since it adequately emphasizes each stage of the development of a theory.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. BAe Dynamics Group, Stevenage Herts, SG1 2DA, UK

    L. N. Harris

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  1. L. N. Harris
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. GEC Research Laboratories, Marconi Research Centre, West Hanningfield Road, CM2 8HN, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, Essex, UK

    Jozef K. Skwirzynski (Consultant on Theoretic Aspects) (Consultant on Theoretic Aspects)

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© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Harris, L.N. (1986). The Rationale of Reliability Prediction. In: Skwirzynski, J.K. (eds) Software System Design Methods. NATO ASI Series, vol 22. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82846-1_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82846-1_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-82848-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-82846-1

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