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Full Idea
Any coherent set of beliefs can be made more coherent by adding to it one or more false beliefs.
Gist of Idea
Any coherent set of beliefs can be made more coherent by adding some false beliefs
Source
Pascal Engel (Truth [2002], §1.3)
Book Ref
Engel,Pascal: 'Truth' [Acumen 2002], p.27
A Reaction
A simple but rather devastating point. It is the policeman manufacturing a bogus piece of evidence to clinch the conviction, the scientist faking a single observation to fill in the last corner of a promising theory.