• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Philosophy Professor logo

PhilosophyProfessor.com

  • Philosophers
  • Philosophies

falsificationism

Claim associated especially with Austrian philosopher Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994) that science should aim not to verify or confirm hypotheses – as verificationists and inductivists in general claim – but to falsify them.

This is because science is interested (in Popper’s view) in universal affirmative conclusions, of the form ‘All As are Bs’, and if the universe is infinite (or merely too vast to explore) such conclusions could never be verified.

However, they could be falsified by the discovery of a counter-example. Popper also rejects the possibility of weak confirmation, replacing it by his own notion of corroboration – though how far this is really different might be disputed.

However, while verificationists claim that verifiability is essential for meaningfulness, Popper claims only that falsifiability is essential for scientific – as against metaphysical – status (not that it is so for meaningfulness).

Also see: hypothetico-deductive method, inductivism, deductivism, improbabilism

Source:
A O’Hear, Karl Popper (1980)

Table of Contents

    • 0.1 Related:
  • 1 Videos
  • 2 Related Products
    • 2.1 Logics and Falsifications: A New Perspective on Constructivist Semantics (Trends in Logic)
    • 2.2 Putting Philosophy to Work: Inquiry and Its Place in Culture -- Essays on Science, Religion, Law, Literature, and Life
    • 2.3 A Defense of Computational Physics
    • 2.4 Philosophico-Methodological Analysis of Prediction and its Role in Economics (Theory and Decision Library A: Book 50)
    • 2.5 David Hume and Contemporary Philosophy
    • 2.6 Falsificationism (2010) ISBN: 4861631505 [Japanese Import]

Related:

  • hypothetico-deductive method
  • verifiability (or verification) principle
  • propensity theory of probability
  • Karl Popper
  • deductivism

  • Videos

  • Related Products

     
    Logics and Falsifications: A New Perspective on Constructivist Semantics (Trends in Logic)

    Logics and Falsifications: A New Perspective on Constructivist Semantics (Trends in Logic)

    • Hardcover Book
    • Kapsner, Andreas (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 217 Pages - 01/07/2015 (Publication Date) - Springer (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Putting Philosophy to Work: Inquiry and Its Place in Culture -- Essays on Science, Religion, Law, Literature, and Life

    Putting Philosophy to Work: Inquiry and Its Place in Culture -- Essays on Science, Religion, Law, Literature, and Life

    • Amazon Kindle Edition
    • Haack, Susan (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 348 Pages - 05/14/2013 (Publication Date) - Prometheus (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    A Defense of Computational Physics

    A Defense of Computational Physics

    • Amazon Kindle Edition
    • Roache, Patrick J. (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 100 Pages - 04/02/2012 (Publication Date)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Philosophico-Methodological Analysis of Prediction and its Role in Economics (Theory and Decision Library A: Book 50)

    Philosophico-Methodological Analysis of Prediction and its Role in Economics (Theory and Decision Library A: Book 50)

    • Amazon Kindle Edition
    • Gonzalez, Wenceslao J. (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 362 Pages - 02/19/2015 (Publication Date) - Springer (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    David Hume and Contemporary Philosophy

    David Hume and Contemporary Philosophy

    • Hardcover Book
    • Ilya Kasavin (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 335 Pages - 11/01/2012 (Publication Date) - Cambridge Scholars Publishing (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Falsificationism (2010) ISBN: 4861631505 [Japanese Import]

    Falsificationism (2010) ISBN: 4861631505 [Japanese Import]

    • Japanese (Publication Language)
    • Tohoku University Publishing Co. (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
  • Last update 2020-06-17. Price and product availability may change.

    Pascal’s wager

    holism

    legitimacy

    behaviorism

    Pythagoreanism

    • Contact
    • Facebook

    Copyright © 2022 · CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. “AS AN AMAZON ASSOCIATE I EARN FROM QUALIFYING PURCHASES.”