Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Circling The Truth: Model Selection Criteria As A Metric Of Verisimilitude In Theory Selection, K. Raleigh Hansen

Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

The purpose of this research is to investigate the possibility of using aspects of model selection theory to overcome both a logical problem and an epistemic problem that prevents progress towards the truth to be measured while maintaining a realist approach to science. Karl Popper began such an investigation into the problem of progress in 1963 with an idea of verisimilitude, but his attempts failed to meet his own criteria, the logical and epistemic problems, for a metric of progress. Although philosophers have attempted to fix Popper’s verisimilitude, none have seemed to overcome both criteria yet. My research analyzes the …