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"One of the main tasks for human reason is to make the universe we live in understandable to ourselves. This is the task of science. There are two different components of about equal importance in this enterprise. The first is poetic inventiveness ..."
– Karl Popper
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Category Archives: science
Popper on epistemological naturalism
This is a quote from Popper in Logic of Scientific Discovery, Section 10: This view, according to which methodology is an empirical science in its turn—a study of the actual behaviour of scientists, or of the actual procedure of ‘science’—may be described … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, logic, quote, science
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Criticism of Salmon on Popper
Wesley Salmon wrote a critique of critical rationalism in which he claimed this it could not explain why it is rational to use the predictions of scientific theories to help us make decisions. First, note that Salmon does not and … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, logic, science
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Scientific realism debate
There is currently a raging debate among philosophers of science about “scientific realism” – this is the idea that current scientific theories more or less accurately describe the world. Some philosophers say they do; some say they don’t. The date … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, science
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Six varieties of inductivism…
…and why they are all wrong headed. Inductivism is the theory that there is a process called induction that takes evidence and uses it to produce knowledge (useful or explanatory information). I have recently found out that inductivists like to … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, science
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Popper’s Indeterminism
I read Popper’s The Open Universe for the first time yesterday. What do you think of Popper’s arguments against determinism, especially the metaphysical variety? Although I appreciate Popper’s critique of “scientific” determinism, I confess to assuming that some kind of metaphysical determinism is … Continue reading
Posted in CR scholars, science
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Sir Peter Medawar on scientific method
Deductivism in mathematical literature and inductivism in scientific papers are simply the postures we choose to be seen in when the curtain goes up and the public sees us. The theatrical illusion is shattered if we ask what goes on … Continue reading
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Sir John Eccles on falsification
Until 1944 I had succeeded moderately well in the conventional scientific manner with beliefs that may be categorized as follows: that hypotheses grow out of the careful and methodical collection of experimental data; that the excellence of a scientist is … Continue reading
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Karl Popper on the scientific status of Darwin’s theory of evolution
When speaking here of Darwinism, I shall speak always of today’s theory–that is Darwin’s own theory of natural selection supported by the Mendelian theory of heredity, by the theory of the mutation and recombination of genes in a gene pool, … Continue reading
Posted in evolution, science
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Karl Popper on logic of falsification
The falsifying mode of inference here referred to — the way in which the falsification of a conclusion entails the falsification of the system from which it is derived — is the modus tollens of classical logic. It may be … Continue reading
Karl Popper on the empirical base of science
This part of my lecture might be described as an attack on empiricism, as formulated for example in the following classical statement of Hume’s: ‘If I ask you why you believe any particular matter of fact . . ., you … Continue reading