Karl Popper
Falsifiability's chief proponent
Karl Popper was an Austrian-British philosopher of science, best known for the principle of falsifiability—the idea that scientific theories must be testable and capable of being proven wrong.
He argued that what distinguishes science from pseudoscience isn't verification but the possibility of refutation: Popper would say astrology isn't science because no observation could disprove it.
His work influenced scientific methodology and political philosophy, where he defended open societies against totalitarianism.
Disproving a statement
- testabilityCapacity for verification
- demarcationFormal boundary setting
- disproofEvidence showing falsehood
- hypothesisTestable proposed explanation
empirical · corroboration · predictions · asymmetry · pseudoscience · unfalsifiable · ad hoc · immunization
Structured process for investigation
- conjecturesUnverified assumptions or theories
- refutationsProofs something is wrong
- verisimilitudeAppearance of being factual
- HumeScottish Enlightenment philosopher
Vienna Circle · instrumentalism · realism · probability · indeterminism · emergence · reduction
In-group loyalty, out-group hostility
- historicismEra determines truth claims
- totalitarianismState controls everything absolutely
- democracyRule by the people
- pluralismCoexistence of differing views
tolerance · freedom · individualism · institutional reform · social engineering · tribal society · collectivism · holism
Logical empiricism's founding collective
- KantGerman Enlightenment thinker
- HumeScottish Enlightenment philosopher
- EinsteinByword for genius
- SocratesAncient Athenian questioning philosopher
Tarski · pre-Socratics · Hayek · evolutionary theory · Schrodinger
refutation
Disproving a statement
- testabilityCapacity for verification
- demarcationFormal boundary setting
- disproofEvidence showing falsehood
hypothesis · empirical · corroboration · predictions · asymmetry · pseudoscience · unfalsifiable · ad hoc · immunization
scientific method
Structured process for investigation
- conjecturesUnverified assumptions or theories
- refutationsProofs something is wrong
- verisimilitudeAppearance of being factual
Hume · Vienna Circle · instrumentalism · realism · probability · indeterminism · emergence · reduction
tribalism
In-group loyalty, out-group hostility
- historicismEra determines truth claims
- totalitarianismState controls everything absolutely
- democracyRule by the people
pluralism · tolerance · freedom · individualism · institutional reform · social engineering · tribal society · collectivism · holism · prophecy
Vienna Circle
Logical empiricism's founding collective
Tarski · Socrates · pre-Socratics · Hayek · evolutionary theory · Schrodinger
- Philosophy of Scienceepistemology, scientific method, falsifiability, hypothesis, theory
- British ThinkersBertrand Russell, John Locke, David Hume, Thomas Hobbes, Francis Bacon
- Emigre IntellectualsThomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht
- philosophersAristotle, Plato, Socrates, Kant, Descartes
- Political WritersThomas Paine, George Orwell, Noam Chomsky, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison
- empiricismempiricism, positivism, empirical research, inductive reasoning, Vienna Circle
Karl PopperKarl Marx
Plato · totalitarians · collectivists · Marxists · communitarians
Karl Popperdogmatists
Believers in fixed principles
Descartes · Francis Bacon · essentialists · David Hume · relativists