[fastball]

I don't think this is correct.

Hypotheses make predictions. Experimentation can test those predictions without providing an alternative explanation for the phenomena you are testing.

For example, if I came up with a theory of gravity that implied everything should fall towards the earth at the same speed, all you need to do to falsify my theory is show that this is not the case. You do not need to know that wind resistance is the confounding variable to know that the theory which suggests everything should fall at the same speed is wrong.

[d0mine]

Again, you can’t make an experiment without an underlying theory.

I understand some concepts are so ingrained, that they are perceived as theories but as reality itself (Newtonian physics before the end of XIX century) but physics is not constrained by our intuition (what we are familiar with).

[fastball]

Could you provide an example? Because I did so, and you repeating exactly what you said earlier doesn't really invalidate mine. As far as I can tell, my example is valid and invalidates your theory that you need a theory to falsify another theory.

[d0mine]

Do you understand that your example implies many things? (certain type of time, space)

For example, imagine we live in a simulation, how does it affect your example?

[fastball]

Yes, the example assumes many things, but the falsifying test does not assume anything that the original theory does not.

You now seem to be arguing that all science must be done by proving things from first principles, which is of course absurd.

[d0mine]

no, providing an alternative explanation is not the same thing as proving from first principles.

Just look at various explanations for "dark matter" phenomena

[fastball]

Let me try another example: you claim that anyone who drinks a cup of X liquid will die. I drink your cup of liquid, and do not die. I have falsified your theory. I do not know why I did not die, I do not assume anything about why I did not die – I just didn't die. Theory falsified, no alternative theory proposed.

With regard to dark matter: yes there are many competing / mutually exclusive theories surrounding it, but that does not then mean in order to invalidate one of those theories you need to have picked a different one that you like better.