Rescuing a generalisation by redefining the category to exclude every counterexample.
Flew's 1975 example. The tell is that the redefinition happens after the counterexample appears and is tailored to exclude it, which makes the generalisation unfalsifiable rather than true.
In practice
- A claim that a methodology never fails survives every failed project as "they weren't really doing it".
- A political movement disowns each embarrassing adherent as not a true representative, and the generalisation becomes unfalsifiable.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- The catalogue of predictable errors