Karl Popper

thanks: Tel Asiado

Philosophy of Karl Popper, best known for The Logic of Scientific Discovery, theory of falsificationism, and open society as against totalitarian societies.

Karl Popper (1902-1994) was a Viennese-born British philosopher of science whose principal writings such as Conjectures and Refutations and The Open Society and its Enemies, have been a major influence on 20th century thought. Considered his most important work is The Logic of Scientific Discovery.

Karl Popper’s Theory of Falsificationism

His brand of scientific method, referred to as “falsification” gave rise to a new area of debate in the philosophy of science, and claimed to have solved the “problem of induction” of David Hume.

In falsificationism, Popper claims that the mark of a scientific theory is whether it makes predictions which could in principle serve to falsify it, and that the more predictions a theory makes, “the better it is.” This is part of Popper’s response to what he calls the “myth of induction.”

As characterized by Hume, induction is the method of arriving at theories or generalizations by observing regularities in experience, but he agrees with Hume that any generalization goes beyond the possible evidence for it. However, no number of observed cases of some X having property Y provides the conclusion that all X’s have that property. One simply never observes all X’s to justify this conclusion.

Conjectures of Popper in Answer to Hume’s Induction

Popper’s answer to Hume’s induction problem as criticized by detractors is based on the claim that this characterization first, erroneously assumes that scientific generalizations are conclusions, and secondly, fails to describe accurately the process by which scientists go about forming hypotheses.

He insists that rather than generalizations being conclusions inferred from evidence, they have the logical status of conjectures, that Hume’s problem of induction disappears because generalizations are logically prior, being first conjectured, and then either refuted by experience, (for instance when some X is observed that lacks property Y), or survive to await further observations of X’s. Generations are first conjectured, then held up to the scrutiny of experience for refutation. Experience can never verify a theory as true, rather, only falsify it.

Critics complained that Popper’s theory implicitly employs inductive reasoning, his view being that of a single counter-instance to a hypothesis is enough to falsify it. But this seems to assume that induction is reliable, otherwise a theory falsified in a present time may turn out to be true in the future.

Rationale into Karl Popper’s Philosophy

Popper then rightly claims that universal generalizations, such as “All X’s are Y” are shown false on the occasion of a single X that is not Y, but, he applies his falsification principle to scientific theories as a whole, not just universal statements.

Further, an instance that falsifies “All X’s are Y’s” also confirms the theory “some X’s are Y’s.” Popper's logic of falsification and verification cannot be separated.

Popper finds that the societies advocated by the theory of Marx (communism) and Plato (utopian) are enemies of the “open society.” His influence has given rise to the work of Feyerabend and Kuhn as he fuels debates in philosophy of science.