Provisional Truth Quotes

Science is not the affirmation of a set of beliefs but a process of inquiry aimed at building a testable body of knowledge constantly open to rejection or confirmation. In science, knowledge is fluid and certainty fleeting. That is at the heart of its limitations. It is also its greatest strength.

There never comes a point where a theory can be said to be true. The most that one can claim for any theory is that it has shared the successes of all its rivals and that it has passed at least one test which they have failed.

We don't regard any scientific theory as the absolute truth.

'Incontrovertible' is not a scientific word. Nothing is incontrovertible in science.

What is believed to be a fact is only a fact until another fact supersedes it. Science is only a fashion. Nothing more.

Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis: you can never prove it.

In experimental philosophy, we are to look upon propositions inferred by general induction from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined, till such time as other phenomena occur by which they may either be made more accurate or liable to exceptions.

Nor must we forget that in science there are no final truths.

In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.

No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.

Science is at no moment quite right, but it is seldom quite wrong, and has, as a rule, a better chance of being right than the theories of the unscientific. It is, therefore, rational to accept it hypothetically.

In science, "fact" can only mean confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.

Every result of science is provisional and subject to future revision

I think that we shall have to get accustomed to the idea that we must not look upon science as a 'body of knowledge,' but rather as a system of hypotheses; that is to say, as a system of guesses or anticipations which in principle cannot be justified, but with which we work as long as they stand up to tests, and of which we are never justified in saying that we know they are 'true' or 'more or less certain' or even 'probable.'

At any point, the sum total of human knowledge is not, 'Here's the world as it is perfectly,' it's, 'Here's the best we know so far and we're always willing to be proven wrong.'

In science , all conclusions are provisional, subject to new evidence and better arguments, the very antithesis of religious faith.

Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis best suited to open the way to the next better one.

Faith is synonymous with working hypothesis.

Science makes no pretension to eternal truth or absolute truth.

In science, there are no universal truths, just views of the world that have yet to be shown to be false.

The truth of a theory can never be proven, for one never knows if future experience will contradict its conclusions.

It is the essence of certainty to be established only with reservations.

In science, nothing is ever 100% proven.

No scientist ever believes that he has the final answer or the ultimate truth on anything.

The man who has successfully solved the problem of his relations with the two worlds of data and symbols is a man who has no beliefs. With regard to the problems of practical life he entertains a series of working hypotheses, which serve his purposes, but are taken no more seriously than any other kind of tool or instrument. In other words, symbols should never be raised to the rank of dogmas, nor should any system be regarded as more than a provisional convenience.