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Seremonia

IN GOD WE TRUST

Verification, Falsification & Contextualization

2 min readJul 30, 2023

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What is verified to be true, needs to be falsified according to Karl Popper. In simpler terms, if something is vehemently proven to be true empirically, and it is proven wrong even once, then all the previous evidence is disregarded.

📍In the case of absolute truth, Popper's falsification itself is subject to falsification as well.

  • 👉 If successfully falsified, then further falsification may reveal another perspective that strengthens the initial argument; if not, then Popper's falsification is successfully falsified as it might not necessarily have any flaws.

In simpler words...

If proven guilty but the evidence strikes back, it means the accused remains unproven.

Or even simpler...

If falsification proves the fallacy of the truth, but fails to disprove the presence of a broader context, or falsification shows errors due to a different context but doesn’t disprove the existence of the original context, then Popper’s falsification is not yet valid.

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Example:

Repeatedly proven that the glass is transparent.

  • Falsification shows the presence of frosted glass, indicating that the glass is not always transparent, proven wrong.

👉 In contextualization, it turns out that the glass is indeed transparent, only blurred to appear hazy, but in reality, the glass is clear.

Perspective of Absolute Truth

  • A circle has no angles. Falsified with "there is a circular angle." This needs to be checked in its context. It might be an imperfect circle with edges, a different context.

Original Context

Even if falsification confirms that even in a different context it can still be called a circle, but does it prove the absence of an encompassing context that can tolerate involvement with the original context? If the absence of the original context cannot be confirmed, then it cannot be falsified.

  • In this case, the original context asserts that even if there is an angle-less circle (with edges), it is still broadly understood as a circle (the original context).

Fundamentally, a perfect circle indeed has no angles.

That's how verification is tested by falsification, and falsification can also be contextualized.

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