evolutionary epistemology

I recently started reading a very interesting book authored by physicist David Deutsch called ‘The Fabric of Reality’. The early chapters of the book explores the concept of epistemology i.e. the theory of knowledge which is basically how we observe and make sense of the world. The ideas shared in this book felt like an insightful addition to an article I penned earlier i.e. uber theorization problem which was based on insights of Nassim Taleb’s book ‘The Black Swan’ which highlighted the flawed tendency of people to formulate shallow and simplistic theories to explain causality of events which grossly foreshadow the complex design of the universe. David Deutsch prescribes an antidote of sorts for this tendency of shallow theorization which results in a sadly narrow understanding of the world. He states that the true purpose of a scientific theory should be to provide the best possible explanation for observed phenomenon that coherently connects the various nuances of the world rather than treating it as a simple tool that just identifies correlations between observations and predicts outcomes. Theories that successfully predict outcomes for certain observations without really relying on a deep underlying explanation maybe sufficient for the pragmatists of the world, but such theories can be fragile in the long run and don’t give us a true understanding of the universe. A powerful theory uncovers the underlying ‘why’ of reality rather than just simply predicting the ‘what’ of it and possesses a sense of generality i.e. a mystic potential to harmoniously connect and coherently explain a wide range phenomenon under the hood of a single unified theory. Hence, the author is strongly against inductive reasoning i.e. the process of superficially extrapolating observational evidence to come up with predictive theories and instead prefers inquisitive reasoning i.e. an iterative process that involves generating explanations and questioning them in order to weed out inconsistencies which in turn produces a more refined explanation which is fed into the same process again and again. The latter approach is a never-ending process which respects the complex design of the universe and abundant ignorance of our existing knowledge. The theory of knowledge or epistemology is beautifully connected with the concept of biological evolution where knowledge can ultimately only grow by applying a lens of skepticism and iteratively questioning existing explanations of observed phenomenon in order to form newer and better explanations (eradicating weak explanations with each iteration) which helps move us closer and closer towards truly understanding the fabric of reality i.e. a coherent universal truth that defines the universe, hence aptly termed by the author as evolutionary epistemology.