“Establishing by observation that there is just one black swan falsifies "all swans are white". This is an unexceptional and undeniable point. However, using it as grounds to support a falsificationist philosophy of science is not as straightforward as it might seem.”
Source: What Is This Thing Called Science? (Third Edition; 1999), Chapter 7, The limitations of falsificationism, p. 87.
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Alan Chalmers 17
Australian philosopher of science 1939Related quotes

“Remember that you are a Black Swan.”
Source: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

“And swans seem whiter if swart crowes be by.”
First Week, First Day.
La Semaine; ou, Création du monde (1578)

"On Induction"
1910s, The Problems of Philosophy (1912)

“Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.”
Book I, ch. 16.
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That story has since become a classic in operatic lore.
Source: What Time's the Next Swan? (1962), p. 210