Verisimilitude
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Verisimilitude—or truthlikeness—in the philosophy of science is trying to articulate how one false theory could be closer to the truth from another false theory. This usage was mostly popularized by Karl Popper. He assumed that science was interested in the informative content of a theory because it had predictive power and thus was testable. By this logic, a theory that replaces a falsified theory is a better theory, though not necessarily a true theory. Even two true theories can have different verisimilitude, depending on how informative they are. For example, saying that "it will be raining on Thursday next week", if true, would be more truthlike than saying that "it will be raining on at least one day next week".
Popper's logical definition of Verisimilitude was independently shown inadequate by Pavel Tichý[1] and David Miller,[2] and the search for such a logical definition is still underway. A metrical approach to verisimilitude based on point-free geometry was proposed by Giangiacomo Gerla[3].
Verisimilitude can also relate to the lifelike quality of a piece of writing or narrative.
[edit] References
- ^ Pavel Tichý: On Popper's definitions of verisimilitude. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 25:2 (June 1974), 155–160.
- ^ David Miller: Popper's Qualitative Theory of Verisimilitude. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 25:2 (June 1974), 166–177.
- ^ G. Gerla, Point-free Geometry and Verisimilitude of Theories, Journal of Philosophical Logic 36 (2007) 707–733
