Falsifiability

Science and logic

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• Anecdotal evidence
• Burden of proof
• Occam's razor
• Evidence
• Falsifiability
• File-drawer effect
• Peer review in frontier subject areas
• Positive claims
• Science
• Scientific consensus and frontier subject areas
• Scientific fact
• Standards of evidence
• Statistical significance

To be considered scientific, an hypothesis has to be disprovable. In other words, the hypothesis has to tell us what evidence would indicate that it is invalid. This is usually done by making a deductive prediction from the grounds of the hypothesis. Such evidence can be hypothetical or measurable.

In debates concerning frontier ideas, it is useful to ask how an idea can be falsified: "What would convince you that your idea is untrue?" If no answer can be provided, then the idea is not within the realm of science.