Fallibilism

Fallibilism is the philosophical doctrine (most associated with Karl Popper and C.S. Peirce) that humans are unavoidably capable of making mistakes, that we cannot get a 100% guarantee any of our ideas is true, and that mistakes are common — not rare edge cases.

In CF, fallibilism is the foundation:

1. We can never guarantee truth. Even in math and logic, claims are fallible.
2. Mistakes are routine. Most of what we think is partly wrong somewhere.
3. Even partial infallibility fails. You can't be 99% or even 1% sure of any idea's truth.
4. The regress argument shows there is no defensible way to escape fallibilism: any chain of justification either regresses infinitely, circles, or stops at a dogma.

CF extends fallibilism beyond CR:

• CR accepts fallibilism about substantive claims. CF accepts it about logic and math too (because universal premises are fallible).
• CF rejects the "fallibilism only for empirical claims" compromise. The regress hits any justification, no matter the domain.

What fallibilism does not say

• It doesn't say your current ideas are wrong. It says you're capable of error.
• It doesn't generate skepticism — you can still have fallible knowledge and act on it.
• It's not an excuse for paralysis. CF recommends acting on non-refuted plans.

"Fallibility means people are capable of making mistakes and it's impossible to get a 100% guarantee that any idea is true (true = not a mistake)." — criticalfallibilism.com