Abstract
The topic of this paper is the notion of truthlikeness. First, the logical problem of truthlikeness is considered: Popper’s definition of verisimilitude is criticized in Sections 2 and 3, and an alternative approach is outlined within a simple and precise framework in Sections 4 and 5. The epistemic problem concerning methods of estimating degrees of truthlikeness on the basis of some evidence is discussed in Section 6. In the final Section 7, the methodological import of this notion is briefly commented on.
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Niiniluoto, I. (1977). On the Truthlikeness of Generalizations. In: Butts, R.E., Hintikka, J. (eds) Basic Problems in Methodology and Linguistics. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0837-1_9
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