Epignosis

An epignosis is the prediction of past, but not yet found facts. (Example: When checking the log volumes previously secret key role is NN for the rejection of the project become clear. ) The word Epignose itself is a gräzisierendes coinage and to the reversal of the direction of view compared with a forecast characterize the future and therefore not searchable Predicts facts.

Analytically, epignoses can in principle provide well-founded information about the probability of their truth (if, according to the example, only one of five volumes is accidentally accessible, there is a 20 percent probability that the information you are looking for will be found). Forecasts, on the other hand, cannot contain verifiably correct probability statements. Example: Tomorrow it will rain with a 20 percent probability is logically not a truthful statement. Because either it rains or it doesn't. In any case, the occurrence of both events makes a percentage statement unfalsifiable .

literature

• Lars Clausen : On the asymmetry of prognosis and epignosis in the social sciences . In: Ders .: Krasser social change . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1994, ISBN 3-810-01141-X , pp. 169-180.