ABSTRACT
In adopting methods of investigation which are dominated almost exclusively by procedures of assessment in terms of false or true, scholars in many fields have become obsessed with a certain practice of verification employed as a final methodological step, as it were, to screen for error and subjectivity in statements and theories. If indeed all aspects of the world so investigated could be accurately described in terms of black and white and the results of verification so applied would lead to informative conclusions, then the obsession carries no apparent danger. Should it, however, lead to a weakening of the creative formulation of research questions or scholars' reneging in answering questions posed, its influence might rightfully be deemed nefarious. Not surprisingly perhaps, use of an extremely rigid, black-or-white, form of verification by scholars in diverse fields has led to many controversies and disputes among philosophers and discipline methodologists; other logically systematic ways of checking conclusions in an attempt to eliminate error have been subsequently pursued - for example, confirmation, validation or falsification.
