Episode

Episode 115: Is Falsification Falsifiable?

Podcast
The Theory of Anything
Published
Sep 2, 2025
Duration seconds
6930
Processing state
processed
Canonical source
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-strands/episodes/Episode-115-Is-Falsification-Falsifiable-e37k29t
Audio
https://anchor.fm/s/14b6fc10/podcast/play/107661053/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-8-1%2F8aeee51c-6025-a32f-f05e-fdd81598eff4.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episodes/episode-115-is-falsification-falsifiable
Markdown
/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-115-is-falsification-falsifiable.md

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Summary

This week we consider: Is falsification falsifiable? Was Popper a “naive falsificationist”? Why do so many people think he was? (Including at least one of his own students!) Is falsification itself a philosophical theory that makes it immune from falsification? Does the Duhem-Quine problem, or the assertion that theory exist in an interwoven web of other theories, create a problem for falsification? What exactly is falsification anyhow? It's about showing that a theory is false, right? Right? Popper? Bruce considers these questions and more as our infinite journey into epistemology continues.