Questions tagged [popper]
Questions related to the philosophical work of Sir Karl Popper.
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Modus Tollens / Popperian Syllogism for the Black Swan
If it is a swan, then it will always be white.
It seems like Popper is not asking so much people to build syllogisms, but rather DEPENDING on Modus Tollens as an engine for falsification.
So that, ...
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Is symbolic regression Popperian or inductivist?
This has been on my mind for a few days. I'd love a criticism of my arguments outlined here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/fallible-ideas/9bcC5WN6bLs. I'll re-issue them here:
While ...
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Does falsifiability require reproducibility according to Popper?
I can see how the idea of falsifiability (rather than some form of verificationism) could support a demarcation between science and pseudoscience. Here is the Wikipedia definition of falsifiability:
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What are Popper's views on employment and unemployment?
I recently read an interview where Popper ranked his interest in employment above education. Unfortunately, the interview was quite brief and didn't go further into Popper's thinking on this.
Q. What ...
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Would Popper have argued that a coin toss is indeterministic?
I know that Popper was an adovcate of the propensity theory of probability, i.e. probabilities are understood as properties of sets of generating conditions. Furthermore I (think) I have read that ...
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62 views
Non-science according to Popper's Criterion for Demarcation
So, Popper's Criterion for Demarcation goes something like this: “statements or systems of statements, in order to be ranked as scientific, must be capable of conflicting with possible, or conceivable ...
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277 views
Which movement was Karl Popper talking about?
Which "movement which began three centuries ago" is Popper talking about in his quote below? Would this be the English Civil War?
Our greatest troubles spring from something...These troubles are ...
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122 views
Is the whole debate Kuhn-Popper contained in “Criticism and Growth of Knowledge”?
In the Preface of I.Lakatos and A.Musgrave's Criticism and Growth of Knowledge, I read that the book is the fourth volume of the Acts of the International Congress of Philosophy of Science (London, ...
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404 views
Does Popper's falsification view of the problem of induction have any implications for the NEW riddle of induction?
Popper claims to solve Hume's problem of induction by explaining that science does not use induction at all, but rather science can be described by the process of putting forward hypotheses and then ...
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Does science provide the most accurate depiction of reality for analyzing and describing an accurate worldview?
I've been fighting throughout my philosophical reading with the question of the necessity of science as the only permitted view we (since the late 19th century) have on the world.
My question might ...
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1answer
78 views
Considering time and space as theory-free concepts
I note the question "Time and space – a subject of metaphysics?"
might be very near to my question, and maybe the answer is there somewhere. In that case I - as an amateur - would be grateful for a ...
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724 views
Was Popper against historicism?
I have some problems in reading whether Popper was a proponent or a critic of what's called "historicism". Historicism means belief systems that believe in some kind of logic in historical and ...
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Popper vs the Argument from Ignorance
Isn't Popper's epistemology a form of Argument from Ignorance? "We assume it is true if it has not (yet) been falsified."
But the fact that it hasn't been falsified doesn't make it true; assuming ...
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66 views
Is Popper correct on Anaximanders theory?
In the books of essays by Popper, titled the The World of Parmenides, he writes the following:
However this may be, Thales beautiful theory of the support and suspension of the Earth and of ...
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1answer
56 views
Ethical values according to Polanyi
What role do (ethical) values have in science according to Polanyi and Kuhn?
How does Polanyi define tacit knowledge and what view would Popper and Kuhn have on tacit knowledge?
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Cases with Poppers theories?
Does anyone have some examples or cases which demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of Poppers' theories?
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284 views
What role do values have in science according to Popper?
I have read a lot about Popper but I still can not answer.
What is the role of values in Popper's philosophy? What role do they have in science according to Popper?
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186 views
What is a good layman's introduction to Popper?
I'm looking for an introduction to Karl Poppper's philosophical ideas that have influenced the world the most. I have no prior knowledge of his work.
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107 views
What are the modern views on the problem of induction? [closed]
The problem of induction was postulated by David Hume more than 200 years ago. I know that Karl Popper tackled the issue by using "innocent until proven guilty" approach. However, I would like to know ...
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234 views
What's the difference between the “hermeneutics of suspicion” and conspiracy theory?
The term "conspiracy theory" was invented by Karl Popper as a way to describe Marxist theories of history as a collusion of the bourgeoise class against the working class. So, as far as I can tell, ...
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184 views
In what way does induction concern itself “entirely with justification”?
Karl Popper was "opposed to induction when it came to science", in the words of one of his reviewers, because
Induction concerns itself entirely with justification – with establishing theories and ...
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187 views
Did Paul Feyerabend ever develop some alternative, useful and viable philosophy of science? [duplicate]
I know he criticized Popper's critical rationalism as limited and dogmatic, but critical rationalism isn't like that, because critical rationalism does accept ideas which at first sound illogical and ...
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Why is Marxism (not) historicist?
I have been reading bits and pieces on historicism, mostly from Wikipedia and other online publications. In my understanding, it is an ideological evaluation model which emphasizes the context in ...
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199 views
How to distinguish empirical and logical when axiomatising a theory in Popper's deductive approach
In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's entry on Karl Popper, several steps of Popper's deductive approach are enumerated. I understand all of these but the second:
The second step is semi-...
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218 views
Fallibilism and truth by science
I know that a fallibilist believes that our current beliefs may not be true but i'm trying to argue that one can be a fallibilist and also believe that science progresses towards the truth. Does it ...
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Popper vs Kuhn, Science and Progression
So I've looked over multiple research papers and books and still can't grasp the idea of what the difference between Popper and Kuhn is based on their view of how science works and progresses?
Based ...
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364 views
Individual/Universal Concepts: What does Popper mean in section 14 of Logic of Scientific Discovery?
In section 14 of The Logic of Scientific Discovery Popper discusses the use of universal and individual names or concepts in singular and universal statements.
He starts with a pretty ...
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807 views
How is Lakatos's hard core of theoretical assumptions different than Kuhn's paradigm?
Listening to a course on philosophy of science, Lakatos was presented as a middle way between Popper and the positivists strictly rational description of scientific theories and Kuhn's historical/...
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Is this type of induction a problem?
I can understand how the verification of hypotheseses based on inductive reasoning can be problematic, and I understand that a lot of prominent figures in philosophy are in opposition to this (Popper, ...
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Why did Karl Popper criticize Karl Marx's ideas?
Karl Popper believed that Karl Marx's ideas lead to dictatorship.
Why did Karl Popper believe in this idea?
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820 views
What are the most important criticisms of Popper's account of Falsification? [duplicate]
Karl Popper is mostly known for his falsification principle. I'm very familiar with his account and I understand it well. I've heard multiple times that there are some real issues with this account ...
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306 views
Semantics of Popper's Demarcation criterion - what is included within “Science”?
Popper claims that falsifiability is a criterion of science (but not of meaningfulness). Scanning the original 1935 text (Logik der Forschung) it seems to me that he just refers to "Wissenschaft". ...
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691 views
Evolution and Popperian falsifiability
According to Karl Popper's falsification criterion only a falsifiable theory is said to be a scientific theory. If this is true, is Evolution Theory falsifiable and hence considered scientific?
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What is wrong with Popper's theory of falsification? [duplicate]
Popper popularized the notion that empirical science can not be verified, only falsified. Isn't he right? How can someone verify a theory? To me, it does not seem possible. However, you can easily ...
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A proposition is non-falsifiable. So what?
Does Karl Popper argue that non-falsifiable theories are not true/have no truth value, or simply that they are not provable? Put another way: according to Popper, could a non-falsifiable theory ...
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Does anyone argue that Karl Popper's theory of critical rationalism does not meet its own conditions?
I am a huge fan of Dr. Popper's work, and particularly his theory that the property of falsifiability separates the scientific from the non-scientific.
However, it struck me that this theory does not ...
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780 views
Popper, Nietzsche and knowledge
In many works of Karl Popper, he says, quoting Xenophanes, that all human knowledge is only conjectural, that modern science will never produce a true knowledge.
The german philosopher, Friedrich ...
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157 views
Karl Popper critiques to historical relativism
In his book "In Search of a Better World", Popper says that he already have argued against historical and social relativism in other works. What are these others works?
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Other terms for Popper's “metaphysical research program”
Are there synonyms or alternative terms for Poppers "metaphysical research program"? This seems like a useful concept for practicing scientists, but telling them that their work isn't "true" science ...
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112 views
Can we have a theory of the colour blue in a Popperian sense?
Saussure in his theory of signs declared that there was no necessary connection between the semantic value of a word and its phonetic sign: the sign 'dog' signifies the physical dog, but in principle (...
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337 views
Is medicine falsifiable?
Would modern medicine be falsifiable according to Popper? What about alternative medicine, such as homeopathy?
My problem with this, is that I imagine such falsification depends on double blind ...
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831 views
Why are Popper's basic statements not justifiable by experience?
In his Logik der Forschung Popper writes that
basic statements are not justifiable by our immediate experiences, but are … accepted by an act, a free decision (LSD, 109)
The SEP entry on Popper ...
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347 views
Can we measure the effort to create a mathematical theory in terms of energy?
Sir Karl Popper says that products of our mind, like speech, music, math,... are things on their own. We create them. We put effort in them. I wonder where the difference of creating these things, is ...
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Can information be thought without a physical realisation?
Thoughts, memories, information, all are stored in some kind of physical representation. You might get down to a single quantum state of a electron to store one (quantum) bit.
Sir Popper tells us that ...
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282 views
Is Popper the only one who discusses the “oracular philosophy”?
I did not find other reading apart from "Open society and its enemies", but it's difficult for me to believe that Popper was the first and the last one who paid attention to this phenomenon. Popper ...
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840 views
Is Poppers criticism of Kant valid?
Hume applying rationality to causality showed that it could not exist - the question is then how does it exist. Kants reply was to place it in the mind. Popper discusses this in his *Conjectures & ...
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Does Popper's theory of falsification apply to mathematics?
Mathematics is generally & popularly judged a science in the basic duality: science - humanities. As enemies and collaborationists. The border heavily & fiercely policed.
However, it seems to ...
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Positive vs. Normative--Is falsification required?
I have some confusion on positive vs. normative.
I am under the impression that a positive claim is a claim regarding a state of reality, while a normative claim is one of a value judgment on ...
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How does Popper overcome this critique?
Suppose P and Q are falsifiable theories (in the Popperian sense). Then it seems to me that 'P and Q' is a falsifiable theory (we can refute it by refuting A, or by refuting B), and so too is 'P or Q' ...
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Is Popper's Solution to the Problem of Induction still valid?
Popper (negativly) solved the problem of induction by showing that there is no class of sentences (analytic/synthetic, a priori/a posteriori) in which a principle of induction can be phrased without ...
