Falsación

Falsación is a core concept in the philosophy of science, most notably associated with the philosopher Karl Popper. It describes the principle that a scientific theory or hypothesis cannot be definitively proven true, but it can be proven false.

According to Popper, for a theory to be considered scientific, it must be falsifiable. This means that there must be some observable event or experiment that, if it occurred, would demonstrate the theory to be incorrect. Theories that are so general or vague that no possible observation could contradict them are not considered scientific by this criterion.

The process of falsación involves making predictions based on a theory and then testing those predictions through observation or experimentation. If the predictions are not borne out by the evidence, the theory is falsified. This does not necessarily mean the theory is completely abandoned, but rather that it needs to be modified or replaced by a better explanation.

Falsación serves as a crucial demarcation criterion between science and pseudoscience. For example, Popper argued that psychoanalysis and Marxism, in their various interpretations, were not scientific because they could accommodate virtually any empirical evidence, making them difficult to falsify. In contrast, theories like Einstein's theory of relativity made specific predictions that could, in principle, be observed and potentially disproven. This ongoing process of proposing theories and attempting to falsify them is seen as the engine of scientific progress.