Critical Fallibilism (CF) is a rational philosophy which explains how to evaluate ideas using decisive, critical arguments and accept only ideas with zero refutations (no known errors). An error is a reason an idea fails at a goal (in a context). CF explains why it’s a mistake to judge how good ideas are, how weighty evidence is or how strong arguments are, or to use credences or degrees of belief. We learn by an evolutionary process focused on error correction, not by induction or justification. CF offers an approach to thinking and decision making focused on qualitative differences not quantitative factors.
CF is an original philosophy developed by Elliot Temple which takes inspiration from Critical Rationalism (Karl Popper), Objectivism (Ayn Rand) and Theory of Constraints (Eli Goldratt). CF advocates policies to enable error correction (like my debate policy) and practicing with ideas so your subconscious can automatically use them.
Critical Fallibilism
Recent Articles
Excluding shorts.
- To Make Unbounded Progress, Do Similar Activities to Past Successes
- Arguing Without Discussing Opposing Arguments
- Substantive Learning Processes
- Science Needs Rational Debate
- Objective Judgment, Chess Competition and How Science Is Failing
- Food Packaging Grammar Error
- AI Alignment and Openness to Debate: A Twitter Example
- Example Debate with AI Researcher about Popper
Skills
Explaining how to learn skills, teaching skills, or sharing practice activities.
- Practice Thinking in Terms of Error Correction
- Projects, Activities and Using Discussion Forums
- Don’t Suppress Your Intuition
- Intuition and Rationality
- Intuition and Rational Debate
- Intuition Is Part of Rational Living
- Conscious and Subconscious Ideas
- Learning and the Subconscious Bullet Points
- Cycle Between Learning Critical Fallibilism and Its Prerequisites
Applications
Applying CF philosophy to examples and other fields.
Research
Research articles share Elliot's process of developing ideas. He often uses exploratory writing aimed at developing new ideas and explanations.
- To Make Unbounded Progress, Do Similar Activities to Past Successes
- Arguing Without Discussing Opposing Arguments
- Substantive Learning Processes
- Science Needs Rational Debate
- Objective Judgment, Chess Competition and How Science Is Failing
- Procrastination
- Purpose of Thinking; Positive and Negative Arguments; Clear Goals
- Academic Literature for Multi-Factor Decision Making
- Taking Personal Responsibility for Debating Your Ideas
- Debate, Rejection, Priorities and Endless Meta Levels
- Checking Citations from David Thorstad
- Postmortems Help Address Causes of Errors
- Ignoring “Small” Errors
- Rationality Policies
- Engaging with Long Articles
- My Experience with My Debate Policy
- Fallibilism, Bias, and the Rule of Law
- Grammar as Functions
- Attention to Detail
- Being Open to Debate (and Judging Intellectuals)
- Uncertainty and Binary Epistemology
- Evolution and Epistemology
- Similarity and Contextual Conversion Between Dimensions
- Learning With and Without Two-Way Communication with Others
- Positively Presenting Ideas and Negatively Arguing about Ideas
- Debate, Criticism, Argument Strengths and Intuitions
- Weighty Arguments or Decisive Arguments
- Kialo and Indecisive Arguments
- People Use Weighted Factors
- Optimize Limiting Factors
- Accumulating Progress
- Proper Knowledge
- Rational Confidence and Standards for Knowledge
- Demand For Intellectual Discussion
- How To Build Knowledge Skyscrapers
- Complex World
- Brainstorming Advice
- Learning Critical Fallibilism
- Error Correction Math and Types
- Judging and Fixing Your Own Errors
- Ideas Should Be Judged as Refuted or Non-Refuted
- Epistemology, Scheduling, Bias and Iteration
- Regular Arguments
- Learning with Sub-Parts
- Flexible, Organized Knowledge
- Digital vs. Analog Thinking
- Artificial General Intelligence Speculations
- Learning, Habits and Automation
- Progress Despite Emotions and Bias; Mastery of Sentences
- Weighted Error Rates
- Organizing Rational Discussion
- Introspection, Overreaching and Emotions
- Critical Fallibilism, Evolution and Digital Error Correction
- Fallibilism and Problem Solving with Meta Levels
- Yes or No Philosophy and Score Systems
- Bounds, Hurdles and Progress
- Critical Fallibilism and Critical Rationalism Bullet Points
- Critical Rationalism Overview
- Introduction to Reason
- Challenging Paths Forward Questions
- Paths Forward to Correct Errors
- Evolution Summary
- Yes or No Philosophy
- Integrating Conceptual Units and Combining Dimensions
- Brandolini’s Law
- Most Factors Aren’t Borderline
- Breakpoints, Categories and Margins of Error
- Chat about Decision Making Math
Shorts
- Do You Like Learning Philosophy?
- Mold-Finding Dog Training and Induction
- Losing Track of Discussions
- Intentional, Focused Practice
- Investigating Unstable Intuitions
- Todo Lists and Self-Coercion
- Todo Lists Delegate Work Away From Your Conscious Mind
- Terminology Clarification Regarding the “Subconscious”
- Peer Review Is Worse than the Internet
- Peer Review and Appeals to Authority
- Peer Review Does Private, Elite Gatekeeping
- Ignoring Criticism and Peer Review
- Paths Forward Could Replace Some Peer Review
- Advocating Public Peer Review
- Private Editing and Peer Review
- Peer Review Lacks Transparency
- Allocating Intellectual Attention
- Low Quality Literature Is Hard To Discuss
- Meta Criticism and Unstated Premises
- Followup for Food Packaging Grammar
- Delegating Mental Work
- Question-Based Critical Fallibilism Epistemology Outline
- Actors and Subconscious Automatizations
- Overthinking and Not Knowing What Success Is
- Overthinking and Perfectionism
- Overthinking and the Subconscious
Classics
Classics articles summarize and link to Elliot's best older work.
- Fallible Ideas Essays
- Fallible Ideas Videos
- Tutoring Videos
- Lying and Social Dynamics
- (Classical) Liberalism
- Paths Forward Summary
- Philosophy Outline
- Philosophy Introductions
- Idea Trees Links
- Practice and Mastery
- Overreach Summary
- Morality without Foundations
- Rational Discussion Links
- Improving Emotions
- Yes or No Philosophy Summary
- Resolving Conflicting Ideas
- Rationality Links