Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Wittgenstein suggests that explanations are not definitive truths but provisional guesses used to make sense of phenomena.
In plain terms
Explanations are guesses, not final facts.
What can you take from it?
Treat explanations as hypotheses rather than absolute truths.

Where it applies

  • scientific inquiry
  • everyday reasoning
  • academic debate

Putting it to work

  • evaluating claims
  • scientific thinking

Questions to consider

  • When is an explanation just a guess?
  • How do we test explanations?

Another view

Not all explanations are merely hypothetical; some are well-supported by evidence.

More from Ludwig Wittgenstein

  1. Frazer's account of the magical and religious views of mankind is unsatisfactory; it makes these views look like errors. (p. 119)

    Permalink to quote #93
  2. A religious symbol does not rest on any opinion. And error belongs only with opinion. One would like to say: This is what took place here; laugh, if you can. (…

    Permalink to quote #95
  3. To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth. (p. 119)

    Permalink to quote #92

Related quotes

  1. In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.

    Denis DiderotDenis Diderot quote #47
  2. Pirsig's Postulate: The number of hypotheses available to explain any given phenomenon is infinite.

    Robert M. PirsigRobert M. Pirsig quote #98
  3. I confess that I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much indetermined and unpredictable, to a pretence of exact knowledge that is likely to…

    Friedrich HayekFriedrich Hayek quote #109