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A Reference Volume for Critical Fallibilism
The Critical Fallibilism Dictionary is an archival, cross-linked reference of 217 terms drawn from Critical Fallibilism and the traditions it extends — Critical Rationalism, the Theory of Constraints, and Objectivism. It is a finely-set volume, not a textbook: short, exact definitions, generously cross-referenced, each tracing back to its primary sources.
What Critical Fallibilism Is
Critical Fallibilism (CF) is Elliot Temple's philosophy of how to think, learn, and decide. Its central move is binary: an idea is either refuted by a decisive criticism or it is not, and you act only on ideas with no known errors. CF rejects weighing ideas by degree — no credences, no scores, no "strength of argument" — in favour of a yes-or-no evaluation against the problem at hand.
CF builds directly on Karl Popper's Critical Rationalism (knowledge grows by conjecture and refutation), borrows the constraint-focused logic of Eli Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, and engages Ayn Rand's Objectivism on reason and objective, context-bound knowledge.
Methodology
Every entry was researched against the source material and then adversarially verified: each gloss and body was checked back against the cited writing, with errors and overreaches hunted for rather than assumed away. Definitions aim to be decisively correct or visibly flagged — never confidently vague.
Cross-references (See also, Contrasts with, Referenced by) are computed from the entries themselves, so the web of terms stays internally consistent. The concept graph and the curated reading paths are generated from the same data.
Sources
The primary source for CF is Elliot Temple's writing. Refer to the originals for authoritative statements:
- criticalfallibilism.com The canonical CF site and essays.
- curi.us Earlier writing, discussion, and archives.
- elliottemple.com Personal site and further essays.
Source material for the traditions CF draws on is cited per entry, sorted primary → supporting → context.
Attribution & License
Definitions in this volume are original paraphrases written for the dictionary — summaries, not quotations. Critical Fallibilism is the work of Elliot Temple; Critical Rationalism of Karl Popper; the Theory of Constraints of Eli Goldratt; Objectivism of Ayn Rand. Credit for the ideas belongs to them and the cited authors.
Any paraphrase errors are this volume's own, not the source authors'. Where an entry compresses a subtle position, the cited sources govern. This reference is offered for study; consult the originals before relying on any definition.