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Everything about Fallibilism

Philosophical principle

Originally, fallibilism is the philosophical principle that propositions can be accepted even though they cannot be conclusively proven or justified, or that neither knowledge nor belief is certain. The term was coined in the late 19th century by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce in response to foundationalism. Theorists, following Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper, may also refer to fallibilism as the notion that knowledge might turn out to be false. Furthermore, fallibilism is said to imply corrigibilism, the principle that propositions are open to revision. Fallibilism is often juxtaposed with infallibilism. Wikipedia →

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: FallibilismA 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: Fallibilism and Generative AI in Cartography: Some Fundamental Theoretical ThoughtsInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: The Doctrine of FallibilismThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: Fallibilism and concessive knowledge attributionsCited 78 times
  5. Go sideways: Münchhausen trilemmaA closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: Critical rationalismA closely related topic

📖 Definitions

Noun The doctrine that knowledge is never certain, but always hypothetical and susceptible to correction.

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. Infinite regress and infinite progress
  2. Critical rationalism
  3. Philosophical skepticism
  4. Criticism
  5. Mathematical fallibilism

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

🆕 Influential since 2022

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics