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→Falsification vs. Falsificationism
I'm concerned with the content of this page. Popper may be remembered commonly as a proponent of falsification, which he of course was, but his work on the philosophy of science was mostly about falsificationism; that is, that empirical statements are <i>never</i> confirmed, merely disconfirmed, and that theory choice and scientific practice can be operated in a strictly rational way. The stuff about the swans seems like a pretty poor rephrasing of Hempel's paradox. [[User:Brainslug|Brainslug]] 12:40, 7 May 2007 (EDT)
I'm concerned with the content of this page. Popper may be remembered commonly as a proponent of falsification, which he of course was, but his work on the philosophy of science was mostly about falsificationism; that is, that empirical statements are <i>never</i> confirmed, merely disconfirmed, and that theory choice and scientific practice can be operated in a strictly rational way. The stuff about the swans seems like a pretty poor rephrasing of Hempel's paradox. [[User:Brainslug|Brainslug]] 12:40, 7 May 2007 (EDT)
The stuff about the swans may be poor rephrasing, it is however poor rephrasing of the Logic of Scientific Discovery. The argument in LSD is not that no empirical statement can be confirmed but that no universal law can be confirmed. Indeed the falsification of a universal law require confirmation of an existential statement ("All swans are white" is falsified by confirmation of: "at least one black swan exists")--[[User:Toffeeman|Toffeeman]] 08:54, 22 May 2007 (EDT)