Pessimistic induction

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In the philosophy of science, the pessimistic induction, also known as the pessimistic meta-induction, is an argument against the truth, or even approximate truth, of our present scientific theories. The argument is that because past theories (for example Newtonian mechanics) which were very successful (enabled us to make accurate predications, seemed to explain many puzzling phenomena etc.) turned out to be radically false we should therefore expect that present science, despite its apparent success, will turn out to be radically false as well.