The Specification and Falsification Concepts: Applications for a Quantitative Research in Political Science

Abstract

The concept of falsification, in general, has been studied at an abstract and meta-theoretical level in philosophy of science. The purpose of this paper is not to continue that procedure, but to establish an interdisciplinary analysis between philosophy of science and political science in a methodological perspective. The goal is to answer to the question: How do you put the concept of specification and the falsification process into practice in an empirical research in political science? In order to answer this question, the paper is divided into three parts: the first explores the meaning of the falsification concept in Karl Popper; the second develops the meaning of the specification concept; and, finally, based on an article by Dirk de Bièvre, Falsification in Theory-Guided Empirical Social Research, and on a paper by Arndt Wonka, Concept Specification in Political Science Research, a practical reflection is made about the two aforementioned categories regarding their importance for social research.