How to Judge if a Theory is Good

Let me break this down into simple, everyday language:

“How to Judge if a Theory is Good”

Think of evaluating a theory like judging a car. You need to look at it in two ways:

1. The Parts (Individual Components):

• Like checking each part of a car (engine, brakes, tires, etc.)
• Each piece of the theory needs to be high quality on its own
• If the individual parts aren’t good, the whole thing probably won’t work well

1. The Whole Picture:

• Like how the car performs when everything works together
• Even if all the parts are good individually, they still need to work well together
• Having great parts doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have a great theory

The Key Point:

• Just having good individual parts isn’t enough
• They must also fit together and work well as a complete package
• Only when both the parts AND the whole are good can we call something a proper theory

It’s like building with LEGO – you need both good individual blocks (parts) AND a good design for how they fit together (whole) to make something worthwhile.