deductive-nomological model

an influential model of scientific explanation in which laws describing regularities in nature (see natural law) are used as initial premises or axioms to deduce working explanations of phenomena, which are then used to deduce specific testable predictions. See hypothetico-deductive method; nomology. See also covering-law model. [identified by German philosopher of science Carl Gustav Hempel (1905–1997)]

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Psychology term of the day

May 8th 2024

axiom

n. in logic and philosophy, a universally accepted proposition that is not capable of proof or disproof. An axiom can be used as the starting point for a chain of deductive reasoning. Also called postulate. [from Greek axioma, “worthy thing”] —axiomatic adj.