From the middle of the 19th century, a form of anti-realism imposed itself with the development of positivism (Comte, Mach, Duhem), then of neo-positivism and empiricism in the first half of the 20th century (Vienna Circle, A.J. Ayer, Ryle). These … Read More
According to Popper, falsifiability provides a solution to the problem of induction, raised by Hume, and to that of demarcation, which he also calls Kant’s problem. Popper explains that he was influenced by Kant, but benefited from a different context: … Read More
Popper’s supporters argued that most criticism is based on an incomprehensible interpretation of his ideas. They argue that Popper should not be interpreted as meaning that falsifiability is a sufficient condition for the demarcation of science. Some passages seem to … Read More
Thomas Kuhn criticized falsifiability because it characterized “the entire scientific enterprise in terms that apply only to its occasional revolutionary parts,” (Kuhn 1970) and it cannot be generalized. In Kuhn’s view, a delimitation criterion must refer to the functioning of … Read More
Dogmatic falsifiability refers to scientific statements considered individually. These can be falsified and, depending on the outcome, scientific theories can be considered falsifiable and accepted, refuted, or can be maintained by adding ad-hoc hypotheses: ” There is one important method … Read More
The delimitation between science and pseudoscience is part of the more general task of determining which beliefs are epistemologically justified. Science can be described as partly descriptive, partly normative. A definition of science can focus on descriptive content and specify … Read More
Karl Popper, as a critical rationalist, was an opponent of all forms of skepticism, conventionalism and relativism in science. In 1935 he wrote Logik der Forschung. Zur Erkenntnistheorie der modernen Naturwissenschaft, later translating the book into English and publishing it under the … Read More
