Hume's fork

English

Alternative forms
  • Hume's Fork

Etymology

Named after philosopher David Hume (1711–1776).

Proper noun

Hume's fork

  1. (epistemology) A tenet asserting that all statements are exclusively either "analytic a priori" (universally true by mere definition) or "synthetic a posteriori" (unknowable without exact experience).
    • 2020, Jean-Etienne Joullié, Robert Spillane, The Philosophical Foundations of Management Thought, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 105:
      Hume's Fork would belong to the category of sophistry and illusion. As Hume's Fork is presented as a tool with which knowable propositions can be distinguished from nonsensical ones, critics need to show that the two categories of knowable propositions are inadequate, or that nonsensical propositions can be true or false.
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