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FALSE_KARL

                                               May 6, 2008

                                               BLACK_SWAN

   "Karl Popper was once asked whether one
   'could falsify falsification' (in other
   words, if one could be skeptical about
   skepticism).  His answer was that he
   threw students out of his lectures for
   asking far more intelligent questions
   than that one."  -- p. 193





It may not be a counter-argument
against falsification to say that              But actually, I'm not
it's not falsifiable; but if so,               sure that you can't
that would show that on it's own               falsify falsification.
terms the doctrine of falsifiability           You would just need to
is not a scientific doctrine.                   find cases where the
                                               "falsifiability"
That automatically raises the question         criterion rejects a
of what else we might consider to be           hypothesis that
correct, true, and/or valuable which           strikes us a scientific.
is nevertheless not "scientific".
                                                  If that seems
It takes some of the wind out of the              ad hoc, well,
sails of the accusation "but that is              where else do you
not falsifiable!"                                 think principles
                                                  like this come
                                                  from?

                                                     We infer them from
                                                     actual cases; we
                                                     design them to
                                                     systematize
                                                     existing practice.

                                                        Karl Popper did
                                                        not invent the
                                                        scientific method.

                                                        (And neither did
                                                        Peirce or Mills.)




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