Word
underdetermination
Definition
n. a situation where the available clues are not enough to prove which of several competing explanations is the single correct one.
n. the philosophical and epistemological condition wherein available empirical evidence is insufficient to uniquely determine or select among competing hypotheses.
Examples
“The mystery suffered from underdetermination because three suspects had identical footprints.”
“Inverse rendering problems in computer vision exhibit severe underdetermination, as many distinct 3D shapes can produce identical 2D shadows.”
“The Duhem-Quine thesis demonstrates that scientific underdetermination requires learning algorithms to introduce inductive priors to break hypothesis symmetry.”
Examples
simple
“The mystery suffered from underdetermination because three suspects had identical footprints.”
contextual
“Inverse rendering problems in computer vision exhibit severe underdetermination, as many distinct 3D shapes can produce identical 2D shadows.”
complex
“The Duhem-Quine thesis demonstrates that scientific underdetermination requires learning algorithms to introduce inductive priors to break hypothesis symmetry.”
Real-World Examples
“At the heart of the underdetermination of scientific theory by evidence is the simple idea that the evidence available to us at a given time may be insufficient to determine what beliefs we should hold in response to it.” “The underdetermination of scientific theory choice by evidence is a familiar but multifaceted concept in the philosophy of science.” Etymology
From under- ('insufficient') + determination (from Latin determinare, 'to bound, limit, fix'). Associated with the Duhem-Quine thesis in 20th-century epistemology.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domains
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/underdetermination