Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having not enough
constraints to specify a uniquesolution .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word underdetermined.
Examples
-
The reason why it matters who sits on the bench, paradoxically, is that the law is only partially, or modestly underdetermined from the standpoint of existing legal norms of practice.
Balkinization 2003
-
The reason why it matters who sits on the bench, paradoxically, is that the law is only partially, or modestly underdetermined from the standpoint of existing legal norms of practice.
Balkinization 2003
-
But you must forgive us mythicist sympathizers for looking askance at a field whose conclusions seem so glaringly underdetermined by the evidence.
More Mythicist-Creationist Parallels James F. McGrath 2010
-
The issue is epistemologically underdetermined by its very nature, for Bayle's behavior was compatible with both atheistic dissimulation and sincere fideism.
-
Additionally, the alien-theory is underdetermined by the evidence, but just finds compatibility with it.
-
He accurately laid out the reasons that it was the wrong battlefield and that the war would have undetermined consequences and be of underdetermined length at undeterminded costs.
Obama Camp To Hillary: Not So Fast With That Coronation 2009
-
Right now that means disagreeing with the only person who was RIGHT about the war being of undetermined length, undetermined cost, and underdetermined consequences.
An Obama Foreign Policy Adviser Clarifies Senator's Views 2009
-
Laudan usefully distinguishes a number of different dimensions along which claims of underdetermination vary in strength, and he goes on to insist that those who attribute dramatic significance to the thesis that our scientific theories are underdetermined by the evidence invariably defend only the weaker versions of that thesis, while they go on to draw dire consequences and shocking morals regarding the character and status of the scientific enterprise from much stronger versions.
Underdetermination of Scientific Theory Stanford, Kyle 2009
-
It means you are starting from the premise that the text of the document has a circumscribed meaning, and that while this meaning is assuredly underdetermined with regard to many of the difficult issues courts have to answer, it is not simply up for grabs.
The Volokh Conspiracy » The Constitution and the Golden Calf — A Response to Randy: 2009
-
In fact, as Quine and others have argued, all scientific theories are underdetermined by the data.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.