Sabre wrote:It basically says a theory is a formal statement of rules which is used to explain an opinion.
Which basically means an opinion remains an opinion until it is proven and backed by concrete evidence. Then it can be said to be a theory --> law ---> fact.
Yes, you are right. Basically. Very Basically if you ask me. It's true that it's an important academic concept, computer scientists, math gurus and other scientist use hypothesis all the time to prove something, or to prove it's false. Both by reaching an absurdity or by induction.
In that sense, a theory is indeed formal set of rules, and by formal it means not SERIOUS but formal in a math way.
So that definition of that dictionary is incomplete, because both the word ┵ (greek for theory that's where it comes from) and hypothesis, which comes from latin hypothĕsis and this from the greek. have other meanings, and if you pick a decent and true dictionary and not one aimed to secondary school students, you'll check that.
And if you check the etimology of the word and one serious dic one of the meanings of the word theory, is "
one or more hypothesis that is applied to a topic". The definition of theory in your dictionary is more mathematic, but it's really un-rigurous. Granted, I don't know if English language got the word from latin in ONE of it's meaning only, I'm talkin about Spanish etimology and meaning for "hypothesis" and "theory". Anyhow, I'd be surprised that "advanced learner dic" is the most serious one you can get.
So in this case I approach more Lando's position about how he uses theory and hypothesis, because we're not trying to prove anything mathematically but talking about football.
My 2 cents, anyway.
P.S. Sorry the forum doesn't accept greek characters and it messed up
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