Duhem–Quine thesis

The Duhem–Quine thesis is a way to think about scientific ideas. It says that when scientists are arguing about scientific theories, they have to look at all of the parts together, and not just a single part by itself. This means that to evaluate a scientific idea, we have to think about all of the other parts it affects too. For example, if scientists are trying to prove a theory, they have to take into account not just the theory itself, but also the other ideas and theories that it connects to. The Duhem–Quine thesis helps us to be sure that we don’t miss anything important when we’re thinking about scientific ideas.