Confirmation
Updated 2026-09-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Confirmation is the relation in which evidence, whether data or premises, affects the credibility of a hypothesis, whether a theory or a conclusion. Human knowledge and action depend on this notion widely, from everyday inference to the frontiers of science, yet even with sufficient and true evidence, reaching a false conclusion is far more than a mere possibility. Instance, hypothetico-deductive, and Bayesian accounts each capture part of the relation.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Assess evidence: judge whether new data strengthens or weakens a hypothesis rather than merely piling up instances. - Compare hypotheses: weigh rival theories against the very same body of evidence. - Guard against bias: actively seek falsifying evidence instead of collecting only convenient material.
Anchor fast decisions
Confirmation works through the correlational and inferential relation between evidence and hypothesis: the instance view requires positive instances to raise credibility, hypothetico-deductivism requires the hypothesis to entail the evidence, and the probabilistic approach requires the posterior probability of the hypothesis given the evidence to exceed its prior. Each faces difficulties, the raven paradox for the first and underdetermination with auxiliary hypotheses for the others.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- plato.stanford.eduhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confirmation/verified
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