hypothetico-deductiveadj.

1912 Philos. Rev. 21 642 The type of reasoning that takes place in the hypothetico-deductive fields of thought.

1929 H. A. Wolfson Crescas' Critique of Aristotle i. 25 The Talmudic hypothetico-deductive method of text interpretation.

1949 tr. H. Weyl Philos. Math. & Nat. Sci. i. i. 27 Pure mathematics, in the modern view, amounts to a general hypothetico-deductive theory of relations; it develops the theory of logical ‘molds’ without binding itself to one or the other among the possible concrete interpretations.

1952 J. O. Wisdom Found. Inference Nat. Sci. xxiv. 223 Many difficulties in the nature of the causal relation and inductive inference are obviated by using the scheme of explanation provided by the hypothetico-deductive system, according to which a hypothesis is accepted when it has been ‘tempered’ by severe testing and has not been falsified.

1953 R. B. Braithwaite Sci. Explan. i. 9 It is this hypothetico-deductive method applied to empirical material which is the essential feature of a science.

1957 G. H. von Wright Logical Probl. Induction (ed. 2) 208 The theory of induction cannot, in the name of the hypothetico-deductive method, be banished from holding a prominent place within the methodology of science.

1963 Listener 12 Sept. 378/1 This alternative interpretation of the nature of the scientific process..is sometimes called the ‘hypothetico-deductive’ interpretation, and this is the view which Professor Karl Popper..has persuaded us is the correct one.

1971 J. Z. Young Introd. Study Man xxi. 283 It is by adopting the ‘hypothetico-deductive’ system that men have been able to make forecasts much more far-reaching and reliable than those of any animal.

1953 R. B. Braithwaite Sci. Explan. ix. 299 The latter of these propositions is establishable hypothetico-deductively without reference to the establishment of the former.