more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Fallibilism is the view, proposed by Peirce, and found in Reichenbach, Popper, Quine etc that all knowledge-claims are provisional and in principle revisable, or that the possibility of error is ever-present.
Clarification
'Fallible' means could be wrong
Gist of Idea
Fallibilism is the view that all knowledge-claims are provisional
Source
Thomas Mautner (Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy [1996], p.194)
Book Ref
Mautner,Thomas: 'Dictionary of Philosophy' [Penguin 1997], p.194
A Reaction
I think of this as footnote to all thought which reads "Note 1: but you never quite know". Personally I would call myself a fallibilist, and am surprise at anyone who doesn't. The point is that this does not negate 'knowledge'. I am fairly sure 2+3=5.
12569 | Knowledge by senses is less certain than that by intuition or reason, but it is still knowledge [Locke] |
14768 | Infallibility in science is just a joke [Peirce] |
14770 | Reasoning is based on statistical induction, so it can't achieve certainty or precision [Peirce] |
19107 | Inquiry is not standing on bedrock facts, but standing in hope on a shifting bog [Peirce] |
22870 | No belief can be so settled that it is not subject to further inquiry [Dewey] |
17637 | The most obvious beliefs are not infallible, as other obvious beliefs may conflict [Russell] |
12897 | To say S knows P, but cannot eliminate not-P, sounds like a contradiction [Lewis] |
2755 | If senses are fallible, then being open to correction is an epistemological virtue [Dancy,J] |
6898 | Fallibilism is the view that all knowledge-claims are provisional [Mautner] |
19701 | Fallibilism is consistent with dogmatism or scepticism, and is not alternative to them [Dougherty] |
19700 | It is best to see the fallibility in the reasons, rather than in the agents or the knowledge [Dougherty] |
19702 | We can't normally say that we know something 'but it might be false' [Dougherty] |
19718 | Indefeasibility does not imply infallibility [Grundmann] |