Those interested in the philosophy of science should be aware of Karl Popper[0], and his view that what makes a theory scientific is its falsifiability: If a theory can be false in some way, then you must be able to construct some sort of empirical experiment which could demonstrate its falsehood. This is in contrast to the verificationism that was popular in the Vienna Circle during during his time, which took the view that positive experimental results was evidence towards the truth of a theory. So in his view, science is a process that produce theories that converge on the truth, but never quite get there. For him, "scientific fact" is an oxymoron.
He also famously got into a heated debate with Wittgenstein over the nature of philosophical inquiry. So heated, that Wittgenstein almost beat Poppers ass with a fire poker, or so the story goes[1].