Verisimilitude  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

"The metaphysicians of Tlön do not seek for the truth or even for verisimilitude, but rather for the astounding. They judge that metaphysics is a branch of fantastic literature." --"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (1940) by Borges

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

(from Latin verisimilitudo, from verus true + similitudo similitude) is the state or quality of something that exhibits the appearance of truth or reality.

In literature and theatre, the term denotes the extent to which a work of fiction exhibits realism or authenticity, or otherwise conforms to our sense of reality. A work with a high degree of verisimilitude means that the work is very realistic and believable; works of this nature are often said to be "true to life".

In theatre, verisimilitude refers to a neoclassic idea of reality (realism), morality (there is a god), and universality. Universality means that common of all people, there is a truth. Something that is true of one person is true of all.

Verisimilitude in Philosophy of Science

The term Verisimilitude has also served the purpose, in the philosophy of science, of trying to articulate how a false theory could be closer to the truth than another false theory. This usage was mostly popularized by Sir Karl Popper. His logical definition of Verisimilitude was independently shown inadequate by Pavel Tichý and David Miller, and the search for such a logical definition is still underway.

See also

verisimilitude (literature)





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Verisimilitude" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools