Rejectionist Causation

Term · Environment · MLC-T-ENV-023689

1. The only defensible form of scientific inference is to frame and reject hypotheses-including causal hypotheses. No amount of positive evidence can prove a hypothesis (at least one in the form of a scientific law), but, if all but one possible hypothesis can be rejected, the remaining hypothesis may be accepted. To use Popper's famous example, no number of observations of white swans can prove that all swans are white, but one black swan disproves it. Synonyms include falsification and refutation.

2. The only defensible form of scientific inference is to frame and reject hypotheses-including causal hypotheses. No amount of positive evidence can prove a hypothesis (at least one in the form of a scientific law), but, if all but one possible hypothesis can be rejected, the remaining hypothesis may be accepted. To use Popper's famous example, no number of observations of white swans can prove that all swans are white, but one black swan disproves it.

Table 1. Record
Identifier	MLC-T-ENV-023689
Field	Environment
Subject	Information management and systems
References	CADDIS: Causal Concepts; Causal Concepts
See also	Refutation; Falsification

Record as JSON

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-023689",
  "term": "Rejectionist Causation",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. The only defensible form of scientific inference is to frame and reject hypotheses-including causal hypotheses. No amount of positive evidence can prove a hypothesis (at least one in the form of a scientific law), but, if all but one possible hypothesis can be rejected, the remaining hypothesis may be accepted. To use Popper's famous example, no number of observations of white swans can prove that all swans are white, but one black swan disproves it. Synonyms include falsification and refutation.\n\n2. The only defensible form of scientific inference is to frame and reject hypotheses-including causal hypotheses. No amount of positive evidence can prove a hypothesis (at least one in the form of a scientific law), but, if all but one possible hypothesis can be rejected, the remaining hypothesis may be accepted. To use Popper's famous example, no number of observations of white swans can prove that all swans are white, but one black swan disproves it.",
  "subject": "Information management and systems",
  "see_also": [
    "Refutation",
    "Falsification"
  ],
  "references": [
    "CADDIS: Causal Concepts",
    "Causal Concepts"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/rejectionist-causation/"
}

Record 23,689 of 30,736 in Environment terminology (MLC-0121). Request the full dataset.