about truth
for example).
"Actually the case" or "true" means that what is asserted is exactly as it is asserted to be.
My wife's hypothesis asserted a specific relationship (in the car) about an entity (my car keys) which she demonstrated (by looking and finding them in there) was actually true. That is proof, at least in everyday language. Proof, in this sense at least, in not only possible, but we do it all the time. Whether there is any other kind of proof remains to be seen.
What About Serious Proof?
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The car keys example might seem like a trivial example, but it is exactly what proof is. Understandably, most people will brush an example like this aside to ask, "but the issues in science are both more complex and more universal, can we really prove anything in science?" The sad thing is, this question is meant seriously.
The answer is, of course we can prove things in science, and we can prove them conclusively, and have done just that, not a few times, but many times. The fact this is not obvious to anyone living in present day America demonstrates just how successful the anti-knowledge anti-intellectual, anti-human movement has been.
For those in the movement (most of academia, for example), and those who have been completely swayed by the movement (most of those educated in today's colleges and universities), nothing is going to change their view that "absolute proof" and "certain knowledge," are impossible.
Speaking for themselves, they may be correct, but, for the rest of us, as a reminder of what the human mind is capable of achieving, especially when it is free to achieve, consider these well-known proven truths.
Aristotle and Galileo
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It is difficult to admit faults about one's friends but even harder to admit them about one's heros. In the field of philosophy, Aristotle is one of my heroes, but in the field of science, I'm afraid Aristotle was a great failure, and we know the cause of that failure. He used the wrong method.
Aristotle thought he could use in science the same method he used in philosophy. Philosophy deals primarily with ideas and the method for dealing with ideas is mostly thought. Science deals with the observable material world, to study that, one must observe it and perform experiments so one can observe it as carefully and completely as possible.
Bertrand Russel points out Aristotle might have avoided one of his many scientific mistakes by the simple experiment of asking Mrs. Aristotle to open her mouth and observing, by counting, how many teeth she had. Instead, he only thought about, and concluded women had fewer teeth than men.
Fortunately for science and for mankind, Galileo, using the correct method, was able to correct at least two of Aristotle's really big scientific mistakes.
Aristotle thought "heavy objects fall more rapidly than light objects."
Galileo demonstrated "all objects fall at the same rate."
Aristotle thought "Objects remain in motion only so long as a force is continually exerted to propel them."
Galileo demonstrated "Objects in motion remain in motion until some [next page]