Claim · Seed idea · last reconsidered September 8, 2026
Falsifiability demarcates science
Popper's criterion: a theory is empirical only if some possible observation would contradict it.
- Territories
- Knowing
A theory belongs to empirical science only if it forbids something. If no observation could contradict it, its agreement with every observed fact is not a strength but the absence of content.
Karl PopperCritical rationalism1934
Connected ideas
is challenged by
- Normal science does not test its frameClaim
If a single contrary observation were fatal, no theory would survive its first week; Kuhn's history says none is treated that way.
derived from
- The Logic of Scientific DiscoverySource
Stated in the demarcation chapters.
related to
- FalsificationConcept
This is the concept's canonical statement.
responds to
- What would make me wrong?Question
It makes the question a test of whether a claim says anything at all.