Answer by pygosceles for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
Does falsifiability require the process of falsification be finished in finite time?Awesome thinking. The best answer I know of is no.I'll make my case. Take the complement of your question:Does...
View ArticleAnswer by fubra for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
This claim is not falsifiable if you let your hands be tied by an implicit rule (not mentioned in your question): "the only investigative tool is tossing the coin repeatedly".Of course, you can measure...
View ArticleAnswer by Tames for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
My thoughts are close to those of @mwenglerStatistics are useful precisely because there's no need to verify every singular manifestation of a phenomena. Statistics work with samples, you only have to...
View ArticleAnswer by mwengler for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
"This coin is fair" is weak in an important way as a falsifiable proposition, but for the most part is as strong as any scientific conclusion as far as falsification goes. The one sense in which it is...
View ArticleAnswer by mwengler for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
A lot of the answers above seem flawed to me in that they assume, usually without stating the assumption, that the coin tosses are stationary in time. Stationary in time means that the underlying...
View ArticleAnswer by zzzbbx for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
From a scientific point of view you can only rely on statistics. For example, if you were to toss a coin we all agree that it would not be possible to toss the coin an infinite number of times. The...
View ArticleAnswer by philosodad for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
Actually, you could simply measure the coin properly and produce a statement such as "This coin is fair to [insert tolerance]."No coin is completely fair, and the fairness of a coin cannot be...
View ArticleAnswer by Raskolnikov for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
Falsifiability is from a scientific viewpoint worthless anyway. Statistically, what you would put forward is a null hypothesis (the coin is fair) and an alternate one (it isn't). You would then compute...
View ArticleAnswer by jimjim for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
Update : Neither the claim nor it's negation can be either validated or shown to be false. It is example of a statement that can not be verified within the system that is stated.Just consider it's...
View ArticleAnswer by Lennart Regebro for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
The main problem as I see it, is the definition of "this coin".You can prove, for reasonable definitions of "prove", that "this coin" is fair, by tossing it enough times and showing it has a 50/50...
View ArticleAnswer by apoorv020 for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
I would argue that your last question, though a matter of semantics(essentially you are asking what is the definition of falsifiability), can be answered in the positive (falsifiability requires the...
View ArticleAnswer by Rex Kerr for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
The question is, interpreted literally, neither answerable nor useful to ask.Operationally, what people mean when they ask such questions is something like, "Assuming that this coin contains no...
View ArticleAnswer by vonjd for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
This is indeed a very good and deep question.Falsifiability as your secret weapon is indeed foremost a Popperian claim. One of the biggest proponents nowadays are e.g. David Deutsch (see e.g. his new...
View ArticleAnswer by Phira for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
You can never falsify statistical claims, tossing the coin infinitely often does not help, either. So the answer is no, these claims are not falsifiable.But what you can do and what people routinely do...
View ArticleAnswer by Chuck for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
I am tempted to adopt a Wittgensteinian tack on this one - not saying that it is right but it seems to me an interesting approach for this type of question. For reference, my argument is based on...
View ArticleAnswer by Chad for Is the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
It is certianly falsifiable. If a coin can be shown statistically to favor one side over the other consistantly in a statisically signifigant data set. And the results can be duplicated consistantly...
View ArticleIs the claim "this coin is fair" falsifiable?
Wikipedia says,The claim "No human lives forever" is not falsifiable since one would have to observe a human living forever to falsify that claim.Thinking on similar lines, even if the coin is fair, it...
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