H. P. Grice, "Incorrigibility versus Infallibility"

incorrigible Epistemology, metaphysics A statement or proposition is incorrigible in a strong sense if it is impossible to be mistaken or uncertain about its truth and is incorrigible in a weak sense if it cannot be corrected even if it may be mistaken. An example of the strong sense is given by the so-called basic propositions, which are meant merely to record one’s present experience without relating it to anything else. I cannot doubt propositions such as “I have a headache,” although this statement might be doubted by other persons or by myself at other times. An example for the weak sense is given by our reports of our dreams, which we are not in a position to correct even if they are mistaken. A search for an absolute ground in metaphysics and epistemology is a search for a starting-point that is incorrigible, but it is disputable whether there can be such a point. “I should now agree with those who say that propositions of this kind are ‘incorrigible’, assuming that what is meant by their being incorrigible is that it is impossible to be mistaken about them except in a verbal sense.” Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic