The Logic of Scientific Discovery

The problem of induction consists in asking for a logical justification of universal statements about reality… We recognize, with Hume, that there is no such logical justification: there can be none, simply because they are not genuine statements.

We must distinguish between, on the one hand, our subjective experiences or our feelings of conviction, which can never justify any statement (though they can be made the subject of psychological investigation) and, on the other hand, the objective logical relations subsisting among the various systems of scientific statements, and within each of them.

Tags: #rationality #epistemology

My use of the terms ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ is not unlike Kant’s. He uses the word ‘objective’ to indicate that scientific knowledge should be justifiable, independently of anybody’s whim:

We must clearly distinguish between falsifiability and falsification.