falsificationism
E69412
epistemological doctrine
philosophy of science
scientific methodology
theory of scientific rationality
Falsificationism is a philosophy of science, chiefly associated with Karl Popper, which holds that scientific theories can never be conclusively verified but can and should be rigorously tested and potentially refuted by empirical evidence.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| critical rationalism | 5 |
| Karl Popper's falsificationism | 1 |
| falsificationism canonical | 1 |
| theory of falsifiability | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T554800 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: falsificationism Context triple: [Karl Popper, knownFor, falsificationism]
-
A.
logical positivism
Logical positivism is a 20th-century philosophical movement that emphasizes the verification of statements through empirical observation and logical analysis, rejecting metaphysics as cognitively meaningless.
-
B.
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science is a classic skeptical book by Martin Gardner that critically examines pseudoscience, fringe theories, and popular scientific misconceptions.
-
C.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a landmark 1962 book by philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn that introduced the concept of paradigm shifts to explain how scientific fields undergo periodic, transformative changes rather than progressing through a steady accumulation of knowledge.
-
D.
Empiricism
Empiricism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that all or most human knowledge arises from sensory experience rather than innate ideas or pure reason.
-
E.
Karl Popper
Karl Popper was a 20th-century philosopher of science best known for his theory of falsifiability as the demarcation criterion between science and non-science.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: falsificationism Target entity description: Falsificationism is a philosophy of science, chiefly associated with Karl Popper, which holds that scientific theories can never be conclusively verified but can and should be rigorously tested and potentially refuted by empirical evidence.
-
A.
logical positivism
Logical positivism is a 20th-century philosophical movement that emphasizes the verification of statements through empirical observation and logical analysis, rejecting metaphysics as cognitively meaningless.
-
B.
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science is a classic skeptical book by Martin Gardner that critically examines pseudoscience, fringe theories, and popular scientific misconceptions.
-
C.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a landmark 1962 book by philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn that introduced the concept of paradigm shifts to explain how scientific fields undergo periodic, transformative changes rather than progressing through a steady accumulation of knowledge.
-
D.
Empiricism
Empiricism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that all or most human knowledge arises from sensory experience rather than innate ideas or pure reason.
-
E.
Karl Popper
Karl Popper was a 20th-century philosopher of science best known for his theory of falsifiability as the demarcation criterion between science and non-science.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
epistemological doctrine
ⓘ
philosophy of science ⓘ scientific methodology ⓘ theory of scientific rationality ⓘ |
| addresses |
problem of induction
ⓘ
scientific progress ⓘ |
| aimsAt | increasing verisimilitude of theories ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | critical rationalism ⓘ |
| articulatedIn |
Conjectures and Refutations
ⓘ
The Logic of Scientific Discovery ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Karl Popper ⓘ |
| contrastsWith |
confirmation holism
ⓘ
inductivism ⓘ |
| coreClaim |
scientific theories can be refuted by empirical evidence
ⓘ
scientific theories can never be conclusively verified ⓘ scientific theories should be subjected to rigorous tests ⓘ the mark of a scientific theory is falsifiability ⓘ |
| criterionFor | demarcation between science and non-science ⓘ |
| criticizedBy |
Imre Lakatos
ⓘ
Paul Feyerabend ⓘ Thomas Kuhn ⓘ |
| developedBy | Karl Popper ⓘ |
| developedIn | 20th century ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
conjectures and refutations
ⓘ
refutation over verification ⓘ severe testing of hypotheses ⓘ |
| holdsThat |
a single counter-instance can falsify a universal law
ⓘ
no amount of positive instances can conclusively confirm a universal law ⓘ |
| implies |
scientific knowledge is provisional
ⓘ
scientific theories are conjectural ⓘ |
| influenced |
methodology of modern science
ⓘ
philosophy of scientific practice ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Albert Einstein
ⓘ
David Hume ⓘ |
| normativeClaim | scientists should try to refute rather than confirm their theories ⓘ |
| opposes |
logical positivism
ⓘ
verificationism ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
fallibilism
ⓘ
hypothetico-deductive method ⓘ scientific realism ⓘ |
| requires |
openness to refutation
ⓘ
potentially falsifying observations ⓘ testable predictions ⓘ |
| supports |
methodological skepticism
ⓘ
rational criticism of theories ⓘ |
| usedIn |
experimental design
ⓘ
hypothesis testing ⓘ |
| viewOnTheories | theories are accepted tentatively until falsified ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: falsificationism Description of subject: Falsificationism is a philosophy of science, chiefly associated with Karl Popper, which holds that scientific theories can never be conclusively verified but can and should be rigorously tested and potentially refuted by empirical evidence.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: falsificationism
linked to: falsificationism
subject linked to:
Karl
linked to: falsificationism
linked to: falsificationism
linked to: falsificationism
linked to: falsificationism