#101 (C&R Chap 10, Part IV) - Was Popper Wrong about Verisimilitude?

#101 (C&R Chap 10, Part IV) - Was Popper Wrong about Verisimilitude?

From Increments by Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani

April 19, 2026 · 1h 17m

About this episode

The episode discusses Karl Popper's ideas on verisimilitude and the implications for the philosophy of science.

Wasn't Popper a falsificationist? Then why did he try to develop ideas about corroboration and versimilitude - the extent to which a theory was closer to truth than another theory? Isn't this verging dangerously close to verificationist territory? In our fourth ep on Chapter 10 in C&R, we wrestle with Popper's treatment of verisimilutude, both the formal and informal versions. Did the project fail? Was Popper out of his mind? Does this invalidate everything? We discuss Murders with ball-peen hammers Walking the line between verification and falsification Is science only after truth? Verisimilutude and its formalization Why the formalization fails Popper's three requirements for the growth of knowledge Popper's ratchet and the no ad-hoc rule Quotes Like many other philosophers I am at times inclined to classify philosophers as belonging to two main groups—those with whom I disagree, and those who agree with me. - C&R, page 309 I shall give here a somewhat unsystematic list of six types of cases in which we should be inclined to say of a theory t1 that it is superseded by t2 in the sense that t2 seems—as far as we know—to correspond better to the facts than t1 , in some…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ben Chugg, Vaden Masrani

Topics covered

  • verisimilitude
  • falsification
  • corroboration
  • science and truth
  • philosophy of science
  • Popper's theories

Keywords

  • Popper
  • verisimilitude
  • falsificationism
  • corroboration
  • philosophy
  • science
  • truth

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: C&R

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