By Schubert Ogden
The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden
Whether a statement can be factually falsified is one question; whether it can be empirically falsified, another.
No metaphysical statement can be empirically falsified. And no strictly metaphysical statement can be factually falsified. But some broadly metaphysical statements—namely, those having to do with human existence—can be factually falsified, even though, like all other metaphysical statements, they cannot be empirically falsified.
No metaphysical statement is an empirical statement, and no empirical statement is a metaphysical statement. No strictly metaphysical statement is a factual statement, and no factual statement is a strictly metaphysical statement. But some broadly metaphysical statements—namely, those having to do with human existence—are factual statements, and some factual statements are broadly metaphysical statements.
31 October 1998
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