Karl Popper
Edited by Howard Sankey (University of Melbourne)
About this topic
Summary | Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher who for the most significant period of his career held a position at the London School of Economics. Popper was a philosopher of science, who also made contributions in epistemology, philosophy of mind and social and political philosophy. He argued that scientific theories are distinguished from non-scientific theories and pseudo-science by being falsifiable claims about the world. Popper proposed a "solution" to the problem of induction by arguing that there is no need for induction in the scientific method. The method of science is to propose conjectural theories which are then submitted to rigorous tests in the attempt to falsify them. Theories which fail these tests are to be rejected. Theories which survive attempts to refute them may be accepted tentatively, but are not proven to be true. At best, they may be highly corroborated. This "falsificationist" philosophy of science has a more general application beyond the method of the sciences. The attempt to falsify a theory is an attempt to criticize the theory. For Popper, criticism lies at the heart of rational thought, which he took to consist in the method of critical discussion and reflection. The resulting general position is known as "critical rationalism". Popper extended these ideas as well into the social and political realm. He introduced the distinction between open and closed societies. Open societies welcome and foster critical discussion and change whereas closed societies, which are usually tribal societies, are based on unchanging social custom and ritual. |
Key works | The classic statement of Popper's philosophy of science is The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Perhaps the best introduction to his work is his collection of essays, Conjectures and Refutations. Popper's social and political thought may be found in The Poverty of Historicism and The Open Society and its Enemies. A good anthology of his writings has been edited by David Miller, Popper Selections. A useful way into Popper's ideas is by way of his intellectual autobiography, Unended Quest, as is Bryan Magee's short book, Popper. Alan Musgrave's Common Sense, Science and Scepticism presents a broadly Popperian introduction to epistemology. David Miller's Critical Rationalism presents good discussion of many critical points that have been made against Popper's views. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, edited by Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave, contains a number of important papers which bring Popper's views into contact with T.S. Kuhn's theory of science. Wesley Salmon's 'Rational Prediction' is an important criticism of Popper's solution to the problem of induction. See also Adolf Grunbaum's paper 'Is the method of bold conjectures and attempted refutations justifiably the method of science?'. |
Introductions | A good place to start is the entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Thornton 2008. Alan Chalmers provides an introductory discussion in What is this thing called science?, chapters 4-6. Gurol Irzik provides an overview in 'Critical Rationalism', and Alan Musgrave presents his interpretation of Popper's solution of the problem of induction in his paper 'How Popper (might have) solved the problem of induction'. |
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Related categories
Subcategories:
Popper: Epistemology (244 | 33)
Popper: Metaphysics (69 | 8)
Popper: Philosophy of Science (880 | 153)
Popper: Works (140 | 26)
Popper, Misc (222)
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