§ 19 Empirical testing
In this sense, the testing of our statements aesthetically with regard to their coherence and consistency within our conceptual framework and the empirical testing of those same statements against our observations are both indispensable for our ambition to match our conceptual world, held virtually in each of our brains, with reality of which our brains are an inextricable part.1
Truthful assertions consistent with our frame of reference should, to be reliably useful, also match the behaviour of reality as accurately as possible.
© Jacob Voorthuis, 2026. Please cite Jacob Voorthuis as the author, The Theoria Project as the title and the page address as the location. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, under the following terms: No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
- A slightly older version of this paragraph was first published in Jacob Voorthuis, Theoria, use, intention & design, a philosophical reckoning; Analysis & Critique: Gardening in the metaphysics of the beautiful, the true, and the good, AHT, TU/e (2024) ↩︎