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[Should one teach false theories: a reflection on the teaching of science]
1Zentrum für Philosophie und Grundlagen der Wissenschaft der Universität, Giessen.
Die Naturwissenschaften
|May 1, 1989
Abstract:
Consciously teaching wrong theories seems to go against both the ethics of science and the duties of the responsible educator. Even so, it can be shown that we regularly teach wrong things, e.g., Galileo's laws or classical mechanics in general. And that we are even justified in doing so if some specified conditions are met. One of these five conditions is that the theory taught is, though false, still useful enough in other respects.