Questions tagged [popper]

Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902 – 1994) was an Austrian philosopher. He is noted for critical rationalism and promoting empirical falsification in science.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
2 votes
0 answers
51 views

Does falsificationism claim that all reasoning should be scientific?

Does falsificationism claim that all reasoning should be scientific? I don't think much of philosophy is falsifiable. Does that mean we should abandon it? Should we believe that 'love' doesn't exist, ...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
60 views

Is there a difference between Popper's view on theories versus models based on theories?

I am considering the wisdom of Karl Popper regarding the falsification criterion. It is describe, inter alia, in www.britannica.com according to which "He /Karl Popper/ held that genuinely ...
Mikael Jensen's user avatar
-1 votes
6 answers
297 views

Why is an open society so totalitarian? [closed]

We live in an open society (in the West). The term is extensively used by George Soros. In the 20th century, the concept was popularized by Karl Popper, and originally coined by Henri Bergson. I ...
Dennis Kozevnikoff's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
46 views

In which work does Wolfgang Stegmuller criticize anti-inductivism and Karl Popper?

In the introductory note to the third edition of Fact Fiction and Forecast, Nelson Goodman writes that "Wolfgang Stegmuller has corrected the notion thnat 'anti-inductivists' of the school of ...
asph's user avatar
  • 141
2 votes
3 answers
301 views

Are there unfalsifiable statements that, in the end, turn out to be true?

changing a little bit the famous black swan example to: not all swans are white it seems to be unfalsifiable, but in the end (when we discovered australia), it turned out to be true.
csfb's user avatar
  • 129
2 votes
2 answers
276 views

What is the post-modernist response to Francis Fukuyama's theory that technological developments give history a specific direction?

Since post-modernists reject unity points and Foucault's work shows one episteme to the other evolves completely randomly without any pattern, Fukuyama's theory here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
Ash Rivers's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
64 views

Dimension of a Hypothesis Popper

How does Popper mean Dimensions of a Hypothesis? This one has for so long snuffed out sanity out of me! Popper lays out 2 Hypotheses (q and s) that has used often in his book: q: All planetary orbits ...
ExoticBirdsMerchant's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
132 views

How can circles be a subclass of ellipses? Popper [closed]

My question comes from: 36 Levels of Universality and Degrees of Precision from The Logic of Scientific Discovery Excerpt from the chapter 36: We have the following natural laws: p: All heavenly ...
ExoticBirdsMerchant's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
57 views

Why must a complement class be infinite on universal statements? (Popper - The Logic of Scientific Discovery)

I`d value the generous help here of the enlightened reader: (Karl Popper) Logic of Scientific Discovery > 33 Degrees of Falsifiability compared by means of the subclass relation Here we have the ...
ExoticBirdsMerchant's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
233 views

Can Popper's methodology be applied to his own theory?

A meta question. About applying a theory to itself. Can Popper's theory (methodology) of falsification be applied to his own work? Suppose we found evidence that science advances by adopting non-...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
66 views

How does meteorology resist Popperian analysis?

Graham Rees (who takes what one could say is a "middle of the road" approach to appraising Bacon's relevance to the practice of science in our times) writes in a 2002 article that (as a ...
Fizz's user avatar
  • 1,942
2 votes
3 answers
172 views

Assuming you agree with Popper, is there anything valuable in Plato's thinking?

I am reading through Karl Popper's Open Society right. It got me wondering, assuming the following: You agree with Popper's critique of Plato's politics. You support democracy and egalitarianism in ...
Rozgonyi's user avatar
  • 123
0 votes
0 answers
202 views

Does this example invalidate Popper's notion of falsifiability and science?

Consider the following two propositions: A: There exists extraterrestrial life somewhere in the universe. B: There does not exist extraterrestrial life anywhere in the universe. B is just the ...
WillG's user avatar
  • 351
0 votes
1 answer
33 views

Why is the class of basic statements permitted by "p" a subclass of the class of basic statement permitted by "q"?

Excerpt from section 37 "Logical Ranges. Notes on the Theory of Measurement" of "The Logic of Scientific Discovery": If a statement "p" is more easy to falsify than a ...
Paul Razvan Berg's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
42 views

Understanding [(a→b).(c→d)] formula in section 36 of The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Excerpt from footnote 1 in section 36 of Popper's "The Logic of Scientific Discovery": In the present section, the arrow is used to express a conditional rather than the entailment relation....
Paul Razvan Berg's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
80 views

Is it standard to distinguish two versions of the hypothetico-deductivist conception of science : confirmation approach and falsificationism?

In his course on Philosophy Of Science, Pr Folse ( Loyola University New Orleans) distinguishes two trends in the " empricist consensus " ( that emerged in the 19th century) : inductivism ...
Floridus Floridi's user avatar
-1 votes
3 answers
141 views

Are unfalsifiable statements valid? Two Medical Doctors met with Jesus and wrote a statement about it

I'm interested in your take on unfalsifiable statements. Please consider the following scenario: Let’s say two medical doctors living together, Bill & Janet, claims that they met “Jesus” in their ...
Philosophy101's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
186 views

Does falsifiability imply meaningfulness and what are some of the drawback of falsifiability? [duplicate]

This is a combination of basically two different questions, but they are interrelated. My first question is pretty simple. Can we equate falsifiability and meaningfulness? I think at least in the ...
Abdul Muhaymin's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
1k views

Is Karl Popper a logical positivist?

Logical positivism is an important Western philosophy with a central idea of verification; the doctrine that all knowledge about matters of fact stems from and relies on sensory experience and remains ...
Shoaib's user avatar
  • 77
1 vote
1 answer
123 views

Corroboration in Popper's system

Why does corroboration give increasing "value" to a theory, as he states in his "Logic of Scientific Discovery"? The question is simple, but I need a complex answer, one that can't be used to ...
Giovanni Grassi's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
186 views

Looking for existing discourse on the category of fallacies exemplified by "paradox of tolerance"

Popper coined the phrase "paradox of tolerance" when discussing how unlimited tolerance is self-contradictory (paradoxical) in that it precludes self-preservation (resisting intolerance). The seeming ...
slikts's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote
1 answer
127 views

Popper, scientific laws and historical explanation

If you extracted theories in connection with descriptions of things in the past, thereby producing historical explanations, would you not then expect these theories – in a general enough form - to be ...
Mikael Jensen's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
133 views

Clarifications on 1) Modus Ponens, 2) Modus Tollens, 3) Inductive, 4) Incomplete based on examples

My second lecture on Hypothetico-Deductive methods (based on Popper's falsification theory). In the class, we were given the following examples. We had to classify which examples belong to 1) Modus ...
user550103's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
402 views

Popper on probability

I cannot understand how and why Popper rejects the idea of a theory being "probably true". If a theory can be -more likely- than another (as he states), it means that a theory is more likely to be ...
Giovanni Grassi's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
121 views

Popper and indeterminism, why is it part of philosophy?

Popper states that: ...There can be 2 incompatible theory, equally irrefutable; for example, determinism and his opposite, indeterminism. Popper; Conjecture and Confutation chapter 8. How can ...
Giovanni Grassi's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
504 views

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, ...
oaktrees's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
208 views

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 ...
Dennis Hackethal's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
228 views

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: ...
Frank Hubeny's user avatar
  • 19.2k
2 votes
0 answers
40 views

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 ...
Mozibur Ullah's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
72 views

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 ...
Sebastian's user avatar
  • 360
1 vote
0 answers
88 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 ...
viuser's user avatar
  • 4,570
5 votes
3 answers
466 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 ...
iceberg's user avatar
  • 51
1 vote
1 answer
182 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, ...
franz1's user avatar
  • 883
3 votes
2 answers
1k 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 ...
NNN's user avatar
  • 229
6 votes
6 answers
758 views

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 ...
Yechiam Weiss's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
96 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 ...
Mikael Jensen's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
905 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 ...
mavavilj's user avatar
  • 2,872
5 votes
2 answers
194 views

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 ...
GambitSquared's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
101 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 ...
Mozibur Ullah's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
87 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?
syedcph's user avatar
  • 61
1 vote
1 answer
80 views

Cases with Poppers theories?

Does anyone have some examples or cases which demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of Poppers' theories?
syedcph's user avatar
  • 61
3 votes
2 answers
441 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?
syedcph's user avatar
  • 61
3 votes
2 answers
352 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.
emilesilvis's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
416 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, ...
Avery's user avatar
  • 195
2 votes
4 answers
270 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 ...
orome's user avatar
  • 265
2 votes
2 answers
266 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 ...
Mirza Beglerović Raven's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

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 ...
amphibient's user avatar
  • 1,438
3 votes
1 answer
226 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-...
orome's user avatar
  • 265
2 votes
2 answers
322 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 ...
user125535's user avatar
3 votes
5 answers
9k views

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 ...
Al-1994's user avatar
  • 31