Meanings
alternative Hume's Fork
- epistemologyA tenet asserting that all statements are exclusively either "analytic a priori" (universally true by mere definition) or "synthetic a posteriori" (unknowable without exact experience).
1 more example
Hume's Fork would belong to the category of sophistry and illusion. As Hume's Fork is presented as a tool with which knowable propositions can be distinguished from nonsensical ones, critics need to show that the two categories of knowable propositions are inadequate, or that nonsensical propositions can be true or false.
2020, Jean-Etienne Joullié, Robert Spillane, The Philosophical Foundations of Management Thought, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 105
Origin
Named after philosopher David Hume (1711–1776).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Hume's fork. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Hume's%20fork
“Hume's fork.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Hume's%20fork. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Hume's fork,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Hume's%20fork.
Source: Hume's fork on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.