Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 20, 2025
11:34
Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
10.4K
Methodological reflections on the MOND/dark matter debate
Patrick M Duerr1, William J Wolf2
1Martin Buber Society of Fellows for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK.
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
|August 2, 2023
Summary
This study evaluates Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) against the standard Dark Matter model using philosophy of science. MOND theories are found to be more ad hoc and less coherent than the standard model.
Area of Science:
- Cosmology
- Philosophy of Science
Background:
- The cosmological standard model postulates Dark Matter.
- Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and its extensions challenge this postulate by modifying gravitational theory.
- Debates exist regarding the methodological validity of these competing theories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To re-examine methodological questions in the Dark Matter vs. MOND debate.
- To assess MONDian theories using frameworks from 20th-century philosophers of science.
- To analyze the ad hoc nature of MONDian theories.
Main Methods:
- Application of philosophical frameworks (Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos, Laudan) to MOND.
- Analysis of MONDian theories through a coherentist model of ad hocness.
- Comparative assessment of MOND and the Dark Matter postulate regarding ad hocness.
Main Results:
- Classical philosophical frameworks do not support MOND; appraisals are largely negative.
- MONDian theories exhibit significant ad hocness, lacking coherence with theoretical and empirical knowledge.
- MONDian theories are demonstrably more ad hoc than the cosmological standard model's Dark Matter postulate.
Conclusions:
- MONDian theories face severe methodological and coherence challenges.
- The ad hoc nature of MOND is a critical weakness compared to the Dark Matter model.
- The cosmological standard model, despite its own challenges, remains methodologically more robust than MOND.
Related Concept Videos
01:10Detection of Black Holes
2.2K
Although black holes were theoretically postulated in the 1920s, they remained outside the domain of observational astronomy until the 1970s.
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
2.2K
01:10Dual Nature of Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation
2.1K
Electromagnetic (EM) radiation consists of electric and magnetic field components oscillating in planes perpendicular to each other and mutually perpendicular to radiation propagation through space. EM radiation can be classified as a wave, characterized by the properties of waves such as wavelength (denoted as λ) and frequency (represented by ν).
Wavelength is the distance between two consecutive peaks (the highest point) or troughs (the lowest point) in the wave. Frequency is the...
Wavelength is the distance between two consecutive peaks (the highest point) or troughs (the lowest point) in the wave. Frequency is the...
2.1K
02:12The Wave Nature of Light
49.3K
The nature of light has been a subject of inquiry since antiquity. In the seventeenth century, Isaac Newton performed experiments with lenses and prisms and was able to demonstrate that white light consists of the individual colors of the rainbow combined together. Newton explained his optics findings in terms of a "corpuscular" view of light, in which light was composed of streams of extremely tiny particles traveling at high speeds according to Newton's laws of motion.
49.3K
01:28Symmetry in Maxwell's Equations
3.5K
Once the fields have been calculated using Maxwell's four equations, the Lorentz force equation gives the force that the fields exert on a charged particle moving with a certain velocity. The Lorentz force equation combines the force of the electric field and of the magnetic field on the moving charge. Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force law together encompass all the laws of electricity and magnetism. The symmetry that Maxwell introduced into his mathematical framework may not be...
3.5K
01:12Reduced Mass Coordinates: Isolated Two-body Problem
1.4K
In classical mechanics, the two-body problem is one of the fundamental problems describing the motion of two interacting bodies under gravity or any other central force. When considering the motion of two bodies, one of the most important concepts is the reduced mass coordinates, a quantity that allows the two-body problem to be solved like a single-body problem. In these circumstances, it is assumed that a single body with reduced mass revolves around another body fixed in a position with an...
1.4K
01:17Differential Form of Maxwell's Equations
518
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) was one of the significant contributors to physics in the nineteenth century. He is probably best known for having combined existing knowledge of the laws of electricity and the laws of magnetism with his insights to form a complete overarching electromagnetic theory, represented by Maxwell's equations. The four basic laws of electricity and magnetism were discovered experimentally through the work of physicists such as Oersted, Coulomb, Gauss, and...
518