underdetermine

under- +‎ determine

underdetermine (third-person singular simple present underdetermines, present participle underdetermining, simple past and past participle underdetermined)

1. Particularly in the theory of scientific explanation, to provide too few constraints to specify a unique solution.
   • 1967 A. H. Armstrong (ed) The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy

     He recognised that, in constructing his laws, the physicist must go beyond the ‘facts’ which inevitably underdetermine his theories. Boltzmann rightly accused both the idealists and the inductivists of having ignored this basic limitation on the certainty of all scientific hypotheses.

   • Wikipedia

     Because arguments involving underdetermination involve both a claim about what the evidence is and that such evidence underdetermines a conclusion, it is often useful to separate these two claims within the underdetermination argument as follows:
     1:      All the available evidence of a certain type underdetermines which of several rival conclusions is correct.
     2:      Only evidence of that type is relevant to believing one of these conclusions.
     3:      Therefore, there is no evidence for believing one among the rival conclusions.
     The first premise makes the claim that a theory is underdetermined. The second says that rational decision (i.e. using available evidence) depends upon insufficient evidence.

• overdetermine

• underdetermination