When1: 1945
When2: 1977
Who: Karl Popper [Popper, Karl]
What: philosopher
Where: Austria/Britain
works\ Open Society and Its Enemies [1945]; Poverty of Historicism [1957]; Logic of Scientific Discovery [1959]; Conjectures and Refutations [1963]; Objective Knowledge [1972]; Self and Its Brain [1977: with John C. Eccles]
Detail: He lived 1902 to 1994 and studied inductive logic.
Epistemology
Proving statements false {falsification, Popper} can gain knowledge. Hypotheses should be statements that are testable and falsifiable. Stronger tests can test strong hypothesis {corroboration}. This process can refine hypotheses {falsificationism} to approach truth {verisimilitude}.
Observation or experiment cannot directly prove or falsify hypotheses, because subjective assumptions or previous knowledge, which can be wrong, always interpret evidence. Statistical induction is not reliable truth indicator.
Hypotheses have strong support if they predict true but surprising results.
Science uses falsifiable hypotheses. Pseudo-science uses falsified theories, such as Marxism, or theories that make no testable predictions, such as psychoanalysis.
People cannot predict plans well.
Mind
Matter and mind are separate substances, and interact in synapses {interactionism, Popper}. Mind has units {psychon}.
Politics
Open societies criticize plans and rulers and can change them constructively. Closed societies are passive and accept status. History evolves according to rules and is deterministic {historicism, Popper}. Epochs have spirits or overall feelings {Zeitgeist}.
Social Sciences>Philosophy>History>Mind
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Date Modified: 2022.0224