Confirmation holism

Confirmation holism, also called the Quine-Duhem thesis (after philosophers Willard Van Orman Quine and Pierre Duhem), is the claim a scientific theory cannot be tested in isolation; a test of one theory always depends on other theories and hypotheses.

References

• Curd, Martin; Cover, J.A. (Eds.) (1998). Philosophy of Science, Section 3, The Duhem-Quine Thesis and Underdetermination, W.W. Norton & Company.
• W. V. Quine. 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism.' The Philosophical Review, 60 (1951), pp. 20-43.
• W. V. Quine. Word and Object. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1960.
• W. V. Quine. 'Ontological Relativity.' In Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, New York, Columbia University Press, 1969, pp. 26-68.
• D. Davidson. 'On the Very Idea of Conceptual Scheme.' Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association, 17 (1973-74), pp. 5-20.