QuoteProject
No experimental result can ever kill a theory: any theory can be saved from counterinstances either by some auxiliary hypothesis or by a suitable reinterpretation of its terms.
Imre Lakatos
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that theories can always be defended despite counter-evidence through additional hypotheses or reinterpretation.

Imre Lakatos, in his quote, points out a fundamental aspect of scientific theory: that no empirical result can definitively disprove a theory. Instead, when faced with contradictions, proponents of a theory can introduce supplementary hypotheses or reinterpret existing terms to defend their stance. This highlights the resilience and adaptability of scientific theories, emphasizing that they are often upheld not just by evidence, but also by the intellectual frameworks that surround them.

Themes

TheoryEvidenceScienceHypothesisPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on scientific method, this quote can be used to emphasize how theories are defended.

More from Imre Lakatos

It would be wrong to assume that one must stay with a research programme until it has exhausted all its heuristic power, that one must not introduce a rival programme before everybody agrees that the point of degeneration has probably been reached.
Imre LakatosRead
If even in science there is no a way of judging a theory but by assessing the number, faith and vocal energy of its supporters, then this must be even more so in the social sciences: truth lies in power.
Imre LakatosRead
Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime.
Imre LakatosRead
Philosophy of science without history of science is empty; history of science without philosophy of science is blind.
Imre LakatosRead
It is not that we propose a theory and Nature may shout NO; rather, we propose a maze of theories, and Nature may shout INCONSISTENT.
Imre LakatosRead

Similar quotes

The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
We're Americans, and we have a rendezvous with destiny . . . No people who have ever lived on this earth have fought harder, paid a higher price for freedom, or done more to advance the dignity of man than Americans.
Ronald ReaganRead
War is the continuation of politics by other means.
Carl Von ClausewitzRead
Sometimes he could almost forget that it was there, the way you forget about the sky or the earth underfoot, but there were other times when it seemed as if there was nothing else in the world.
George R. R. MartinRead
Mind is repetitive, mind always moves in circles. Mind is a mechanism: you feed it with knowledge, it repeats the same knowledge, it goes on chewing the same knowledge again and again. No-mind is clarity, purity, innocence. No-mind is the real way to live, the real way to know, the real way to be.
RajneeshRead
One of the great ironies of our time is that some of the most progressive cities are among the most systemically racist in their housing policies.
Ritchie TorresRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.