Verification

Verification Definition

Verification refers to any procedure or method regarded as establishing the truth of a specific proposition or hypothesis.

In the context of empiricist philosophy, knowledge claims are only accepted as scientific if they are verifiable. To verify a statement involves providing evidence, typically of an empirical or observational nature, in order to support the belief that the statement is true. Within logical empiricism, the meaning of a statement was considered equivalent to its method of verification, meaning that only statements which could be verified were deemed meaningful. Conversely, non-empiricist philosophies of science and less extreme forms of empiricism accept that while evidence may provide good reasons for believing in a statement’s truth, this evidence does not necessarily constitute full verification in the sense of conclusive proof.