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There are few opportunities in introductory physics for a genuine discussionof the philosophy of science, especially in cases where the physical principlesare straightforward and the mathematics is simple. Terrestrial classicalmechanics satisfies these requirements, but students new to physics usuallycarry too many incorrect or misleading preconceptions about the subject for itto be analyzed epistemologically. The problem of dark matter, and especiallythe physics of spiral galaxy velocity rotation curves, is a straightforwardapplication of Newton's laws of motion and gravitation, and is just enoughremoved from everyday experience to be analyzed from a fresh perspective. It isproposed to teach students about important issues in the philosophy of physics,including Bacon's induction, Popper's falsifiability, and the Duhem-Quinethesis, all in light of the dark matter problem. These issues can be discussedin an advanced classical mechanics course, or, with limited simplification, atthe end of a first course in introductory mechanics. The goal is for studentsto understand at a deeper level how the physics community has arrived at thecurrent state of knowledge.

The Duhem-Quine thesis and the dark matter problem