Q&A: On the claim: what is a scientific claim?
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
On the claim: what is a scientific claim?
Question
Regarding Popper’s claim about the criterion that gives some claim the title “scientific claim” (namely, one that can stand up to a test of falsification), is that claim itself scientific?
I tried to think about it, but it seems either impossible, or that trying to answer the question requires us to beg the question or something like that… what do you say?
Answer
Of course that is not a scientific claim (how would you subject it to a falsification test?). It is a claim that is part of the definition of what science is.