Inductivism and the Problem Solving Process

One solves a problem by finding new or amended theories, containing explanations which do not have the deficiencies of existing explanations. This illustrates another of the misconceptions behind inductivism. When a conjectured theory fails to survive criticism, that is, when it appears to offer worse explanations than other theories do, it is abandoned. If we find ourselves abandoning one of our originally held theories in favour of one of the newly proposed ones, then we tentatively deem our problem solving enterprise to have made progress.