 Assuming that one or the other of these hypotheses is correct, is there an inductive method that reliably settles on the right one? What makes this problem more difficult than our first two is that each hypothesis under investigation is consistent with any finite amount of evidence. If 100 white swans and 50 black swans are found, either the 50 black swans or the 100 white swans may be the exception to the rule. In terminology made familiar by  Karl Popper’s  work, we may say that neither hypothesis is falsifiable. As a consequence, the inductive strategy from the previous two examples will not work here. This strategy was basically to adopt a “bold” universal generalization, such as “all ravens are black” or “all emeralds are green”, and to hang on to this conjecture as long as it “passes muster”. However, when rules with possible exceptions are under investigation, this strategy is unreliable. For example, suppose that an inquirer first adopts the hypothesis that “all but finitely many swans are white”. It may be the case that from then on, only black swans are found. But each of these apparent counterinstances can be “explained away” as an exception. If the inquirer follows the principle of hanging on to her conjecture until the evidence is logically inconsistent with the conjecture, she will never abandon her false belief that all but finitely many swans are white, much less arrive at the correct belief that all but finitely many swans are black.