Talk:Verisimilitude

Yeah...this one needs some cleanup.

agree. The first paragraph is mostly gibberish with no sourced material

"Popper was among the first to affirm that truth is the aim of scientific inquiry while acknowledging that most of the greatest scientific theories in the history of science are strictly speaking false"

There are many categories for the evolution of science but to claim that all past theories are false is ludicrous. It also shows a profound ignorance of Popper and the idea of falsification and verisimilitude. Two theories may be proposed as correct but one might have more explanatory power than another or is simpler(Occam's razor). This does not mean the other theory is false. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.43.187.251 (talk) 05:00, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

the link to the german article "wahrscheinlichkeit" is simply wrong! "wahrscheinlichkeit" means probability, not verisimilitude. unfortunately i have no idea which german term resembles "verisimilitude"! i don't know how to delete that link to the german article right now. if anyone knows how to do it -- please go for it ;)

Philosophical Verisimilitude

add Philosophical Verisimilitude. (check Stanford's Online Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Verisimilitude.) lakitu 11:25, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

In Theatre

I just added the theatre's use (or knowing disuse) of verisimilitude, but the rest of this entry needs far more citation and checking.Ndpagency 20:56, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Suggestion

For further improvement of the article, I'd like to suggest that someone "in the know" could include a comparative commentary between "similitude with the real world" (verisimilitude) and "being truthful to the world within the plot". I don't know how to refer to this diference, so I'd say "extensive verisimilitude" and "restricted verisimilitude", or something like that.

A widely known example: The Matrix. Nobody is supposed to stop bullets with a gesture or fly by their own means in the real world (so it's not verisimile), but, within the plot, doing this is not a stretch and it's perfectly justifiable - that means, in the plot, that people are actually supposed to do so.

On the other hand, James Bond is supposed to be a human being much like everyone else, subject to the laws of physics and all. But he usually does stuff that aren't supposed to happen in neither world (real or fantastic). This way, he's not verisimile at all - but this doesn't stop the movie from being entertaining to some.

Sometimes the very lack of verisimilitude might make the character, instead of breaking it?

Perhaps

Someone with the knowledge might like to describe how character flaws and verisimilitude are linked and how that effects the audience's emotional attatchment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.27.151 (talk) 08:01, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a dictionary

But this article seems to be soley to define a word. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 170.215.17.61 (talk) 04:59, 14 April 2007 (UTC).

If you read the Karl Popper article you will see that it is a more complex concept in the philosophy of science. For some reason it is more extensively discussed there. --68.35.156.229 (talk) 12:54, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

His logical definition of Verisimilitude was independently shown inadequate

It was proposed as being inadequate. By Poppers own writings, it cannot be 'shown' to be inadequate. By Godels incompleteness theorem it cannot be proven inadequate. It is only opinion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.46.230.36 (talk) 22:49, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

I agree with this as well - how is it not simply an opinion to say that a philosophical theory was 'shown inadequate'? Should we have a new Wikipedia category for philosophical theories that qualify as 'not being inadequate' so that we can put them onto stone tablets?158.143.132.28 (talk) 19:54, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

It seems to me that the principle of philosophical verisimilitude can be seen as a cognate of Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty. K. Kellogg-Smith (talk) 13:03, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

"I may add that I accepted the criticism of my definition within minutes of its presentation, wondering why I had not seen the mistake before; but nobody has ever shown that my theory of knowledge, which I developed at least as early as 1933 and which has been growing lustily ever since and which is much used by working scientists, is shaken in the least by this unfortunate mistaken definition, or why the idea of verisimilitude (which is not an essential part of my theory) should not be used further within my theory as an undefined concept."

Karl Popper: Realism and the Aim of Science. From the Postcript to the Logic of Scientific Discovery. Edited by W. W. Bartley, III. Rowman and Littlefield Totowa, New Jersey.1983. ISBN: 0-8476-7015-5. (Karl Popper: Introduction 1982) p. xxxvif

For a comprehensive critic of Popper's concept of verisimilitude see:

Herbert Keuth: Realität und Wahrheit. Zur Kritik des kritischen Rationalismus. J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) Tübingen 1978. ISBN 3-16-840692-9.

As the first citation shows, Popper himself has accepted the critic, as far as the definition is concerned.

--Meffo (talk) 17:43, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

in culture

I first heard this word in the TV sitcom The Dick Van Dyke show. I very vaguely remember Carl Reiner (but not as Alan Brady) discussing the word with Rob. Since it's not really a word most people hear in everyday conversation, it stuck in my mind. If I can find any info (which is often difficult for 1960's TV material) I'll see if it can be incorporated into the article Ched (talk) 21:55, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

tiny change to raining eg

I've just added a couple of prepositions so that the example is not so colloquially American. Yergnaws (talk) 06:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

This refers to an earlier version of the raining sentence, because it was later changed again. Sluggoster (talk) 07:50, 16 April 2010 (UTC)