Theory  

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-[[Image:Theatre from Ars Memoriae by Robert Fludd.jpg|thumb|left|200px|''[[Ars Memoriae]]'': The [[Theatre]] ([[1619]]) - [[Robert Fludd]]]] 
[[Image:Darwin ape.jpg|200px|thumb|right|As "[[Darwinism]]" became widely accepted in the 1870s, good-natured caricatures of him with an [[ape]] or [[monkey]] body symbolised evolution.]] [[Image:Darwin ape.jpg|200px|thumb|right|As "[[Darwinism]]" became widely accepted in the 1870s, good-natured caricatures of him with an [[ape]] or [[monkey]] body symbolised evolution.]]
-[[Image:Ethics by Spinoza.jpg|Spinoza's|thumb|right|200px|By virtue of his [[magnum opus]], the posthumous ''[[Ethics (book)|Ethics]]'', [[Spinoza]] is considered one of [[Western philosophy|Western philosophy's]] definitive ethicists.]]+[[Image:Ethics by Spinoza.jpg|Spinoza's|thumb|left|200px|By virtue of his [[magnum opus]], the posthumous ''[[Ethics (book)|Ethics]]'', [[Spinoza]] is considered one of [[Western philosophy|Western philosophy's]] definitive ethicists.]]
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Revision as of 20:54, 19 June 2017

As "Darwinism" became widely accepted in the 1870s, good-natured caricatures of him with an ape or monkey body symbolised evolution.
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As "Darwinism" became widely accepted in the 1870s, good-natured caricatures of him with an ape or monkey body symbolised evolution.
By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, Spinoza is considered one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists.
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By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, Spinoza is considered one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists.

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Theory is a contemplative and rational type of abstract or generalizing thinking, or the results of such thinking. Depending on the context, the results might for example include generalized explanations of how nature works, or even how divine or metaphysical matters are thought to work. The word has its roots in ancient Greek, but in modern use it has taken on several different related meanings.

One modern group of meanings emphasizes the speculative and generalizing nature of theory. For example in the arts and philosophy, the term "theoretical" may be used to describe ideas and empirical phenomena which are not easily measurable. And by extension of the philosophical meaning, "theoria" is also a word still used in theological contexts. As already in Aristotle's definitions, theory is very often contrasted to "practice" (from Greek praxis, πρᾶξις) a Greek term for "doing", which is opposed to theory because pure theory involves no doing apart from itself. A classical example of the distinction between theoretical and practical uses the discipline of medicine: medical theory involves trying to understand the causes and nature of health and sickness, while the practical side of medicine is trying to make people healthy. These two things are related but can be independent, because it is possible to research health and sickness without curing specific patients, and it is possible to cure a patient without knowing how the cure worked.

In modern science, the term "theory" refers to scientific theories, a well-confirmed type of explanation of nature, made in a way consistent with scientific method, and fulfilling the criteria required by modern science. Such theories are described in such a way that any scientist in the field is in a position to understand and either provide empirical support ("verify") or empirically contradict ("falsify") it. Scientific theories are the most reliable, rigorous, and comprehensive form of scientific knowledge, in contrast to more common uses of the word "theory" that imply that something is unproven or speculative (which is better defined by the word 'hypothesis'). Scientific theories are also distinguished from hypotheses, which are individual empirically testable conjectures, and scientific laws, which are descriptive accounts of how nature will behave under certain conditions.

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Theory" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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