different between hypothesis vs counterfactual

English

Etymology

Recorded since 1596, from Middle French hypothese, from Late Latin hypothesis, from Ancient Greek ???????? (hupóthesis, “base, basis of an argument, supposition”, literally “a placing under”), itself from ????????? (hupotíth?mi, “I set before, suggest”), from ??? (hupó, “below”) + ?????? (títh?mi, “I put, place”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ha??p???s?s/, /h??p???s?s/, /h??p???s?s/, /-?s?s/, /-?s?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ha??p??.??.s?s/

Noun

hypothesis (plural hypotheses)

1. (sciences) Used loosely, a tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem that can be tested by further observation, investigation and/or experimentation. As a scientific term of art, see the attached quotation. Compare to theory, and quotation given there.
   • 2005, Ronald H. Pine, http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/intelligent_design_or_no_model_creationism, 15 October 2005:

     Far too many of us have been taught in school that a scientist, in the course of trying to figure something out, will first come up with a "hypothesis" (a guess or surmise—not necessarily even an "educated" guess). ... [But t]he word "hypothesis" should be used, in science, exclusively for a reasoned, sensible, knowledge-informed explanation for why some phenomenon exists or occurs. An hypothesis can be as yet untested; can have already been tested; may have been falsified; may have not yet been falsified, although tested; or may have been tested in a myriad of ways countless times without being falsified; and it may come to be universally accepted by the scientific community. An understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, requires a grasp of the principles underlying Occam's Razor and Karl Popper's thought in regard to "falsifiability"—including the notion that any respectable scientific hypothesis must, in principle, be "capable of" being proven wrong (if it should, in fact, just happen to be wrong), but none can ever be proved to be true. One aspect of a proper understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, is that only a vanishingly small percentage of hypotheses could ever potentially become a theory.

2. (general) An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
3. (grammar) The antecedent of a conditional statement.

Synonyms

• supposition
• theory
• thesis
• educated guess
• guess
• See also Thesaurus:supposition

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ???????? (hupóthesis, “hypothesis”, noun).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /hy?po.t?e.sis/, [h??p?t???s??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /i?po.te.sis/, [i?p??t??s?is]

Noun

hypothesis f (genitive hypothesis or hypothese?s or hypothesios); third declension

1. hypothesis

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

• There is also genitive plural hypothese?n.
• The genitive singular is also spelled hypothese?s and the genitive plural hypothese?n.

English

Etymology

counter- +? factual

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?ka?nt??fækt?u?l/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ka?n.t?(?)?fæk.t?u.?l/

Adjective

counterfactual

1. Contrary to the facts; untrue.
2. Of or in comparison to a hypothetical state of the world.

Translations

Noun

counterfactual (plural counterfactuals)

1. A claim, hypothesis, or other belief that is contrary to the facts.
2. A hypothetical state of the world, used to assess the impact of an action.
   • 2015, Lee Drutman, "Here's the real reason we don't have gun reform", Vox

     The implicit counterfactual — that these members would support gun control if not for the $1,000 they received from the NRA — seems unlikely to me.

3. (linguistics, philosophy) A conditional statement in which the conditional clause is false, as "If I had arrived on time . . .".
   • 1952, B. J. Diggs, "VI.—Counterfactual Conditionals," Mind, vol. 61, no. 244, page 513:

     In recent years there has been increasing discussion of the "problem of counterfactuals". One way of formulating this problem is as follows: "What is meant when one asserts a conditional statement, the antecedent of which is contrary to fact?"

See also

• alternative fact

References