metacriterion

n. a suggested criterion, proposed by Hungarian-born philosopher Imre Lakatos (1922–1974), for evaluating competing understandings of science. Lakatos derived his metacriterion from the use of similar criteria in the evaluation of competing philosophical theories and proposed it as an alternative to both the falsificationism of Austrian-born British philosopher Karl Popper (1902–1994) and the historical theories of science of U.S. philosopher Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996). According to the metacriterion, a theory of science should be preferred to its competitors if it (a) makes more rational sense of the history of scientific practice and findings and (b) can be shown to lead to the discovery of more novel historical facts.

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Psychology term of the day

January 30th 2025

grade skipping

see educational acceleration.