The Logic of Scientific Discovery

“For any conclusion drawn in this way may always turn out to be false: no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.”

The analogy Popper uses in this quotation is often used to illustrate his work's major thesis. Popper emphasizes the scientific The Aim of Falsifiability. Inductive logic emphasizes that ideas can be proven true through testing. However, Popper argues that affirming an idea through testing does not confirm its verifiability. Swans illustrate this idea. If one were to carefully record the color of all the swans one has ever seen, one might conclude that all swans are white. One has never seen a swan that is another color. Popper argues that this is not enough to affirm the statement “All swans are white” as truth. The possibility of a black swan, for example, presents the opportunity for that statement to be falsified.

“Accordingly I shall distinguish between the process of conceiving a new idea, and the methods and results of examining it logically.”

Popper’s philosophical inquiry differs strongly from his contemporaries and from the canon of epistemology. While philosophers like John Locke, Plato, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant concerned themselves with the origins of ideas, Popper argued that understanding from where or how an idea is created has no bearing on the logic of scientific discovery. It does not matter how an idea forms when one is applying deductive reasoning to it.