Shaping the future of knowledge generation: From disciplinary to transdisciplinary research in health

Abstract

Half a century ago, Karl Popper, the philosopher of science, argued that the progress of science depends on falsification or disproval of previous theories in line with new empirical evidence that, in turn, will help to create new theories to better explain phenomena (1). This argument depicts science as engaged in falsifying and replacing theories to better understand problems and suggest solutions. This is equally true in sciences with deductive perspectives, where there is not one and only one way to ask the right question and generate appropriate answers for the questions. Asking right question and generating right evidence to questions evolves and science provides with an ‘appropriate’ methodological key that, in principle helps those in the search process to get closer to the truth.