The principle of falsification

The word "falsification" comes from the Latin words "facio", which means "do" and "falsus" - "false". The concept is used in various branches of human life. So, for example, there is a term "falsification of goods". This action is aimed at deceiving consumers and is a fake product for selfish purposes.

The principle of falsification is a test of the falsity of the theory through theoretical analysis or experiment. This term in scientific circulation was introduced by Popper.

The principle of falsification assumes that only those theories that can be disproved in principle can be considered scientific. In other words, the scientific assumption is capable of proving its falsity. Verification and falsification are formally symmetric procedures. The latter is associated with a break in deduction and induction.

The principle of falsification is applicable only to isolated empirical assumptions. They can be rejected in the presence of specific experimental results or in connection with incompatibility with fundamental theories. However, when many hypotheses are combined into one theory, it is rather difficult to find a refutation, since some corrections in some of the fragments in the test theory are allowed, based on the results of the experiment. At the same time, there is a need to preserve the rejected ideas to the formation of more effective assumptions - more alternative, capable of providing a real advance in the cognition of the world.

The principle of falsification has disadvantages along with it. One of the most important is the proposition, which deals with the relationship between relative and absolute truth. At the same time, the truth of knowledge is relative, and at the same time that falsity can acquire an absolute character.

Just as the verification principle is not verifiable , falsification can not be falsified. In other words, these systems can not be proven or disproved by using their own evidence base.

The falsification principle is the logical conclusion of the neo-positivist attitude toward carrying out a critical analysis of everything, including philosophical knowledge.

The main ideas that represented the bringing of philosophy to the principle of verification, the notion of philosophical knowledge to the logical analysis of a scientific language, the interpretation of mathematics and logic as formal scientific transformations, were formulated by the participants of the Vienna circle of mathematicians and logicians. These ideas became very popular in the thirties and forties.

The principle of verification, in particular, was justified by Shlik (the leader of the circle) and required every scientific statement that is meaningful to be reduced to a set of protocol proposals that should be tested by experience. The same proposals that do not yield to this procedure, that is, they are not subjected to information on empirical facts, are considered theories, devoid of any meaning.

Instead of the methodology of positivism, logical came postpositivism. This complex of methodological concepts is not a particular philosophical direction, school or current. Postpositivism is a stage of scientific philosophy. His offensive is associated with the release of the methodological work of Popper and the book of Kuhn.

A distinctive feature of this stage is the substantial diversity of methodological concepts, as well as their mutual criticism. Postpositivism recognized that revolutionary and significant transformations are inevitable in scientific history. They lead to a review of knowledge previously justified and recognized. Popper came to the conclusion that there is no inductive logic. In this regard, the attempt to translate the truth from the empirical to the theoretical level is hopeless. Thus, Popper points to the existence within the framework of deductive logic of destructive deduction, which is the principle of falsification.