Science Quotes by Karl Popper

What really makes science grow is new ideas, including false ideas.

— Karl Popper

I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme...

— Karl Popper

“Science may be described as the art of systematic oversimplification.”

— Karl Popper

All we can do is search for the falsity content in our best theory.

— Karl Popper

The history of science is everywhere speculative. It is a marvelous hiatory. It makes you proud to be a human being.

— Karl Popper

Science is perhaps the only human activity in which errors are systematically criticized and, in time, corrected.

— Karl Popper

Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.

— Karl Popper

Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

— Karl Popper

But it is certainly not possible to insist on one hand that the formalism is complete and to insist on the other…

— Karl Popper

Propose theories which can be criticized. Think about possible decisive falsifying experiments-crucial experiments. But do not give up your theories too easily-not,…

— Karl Popper

It is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical…

— Karl Popper

I am opposed to looking upon logic as a kind of game. ... One might think that it is a matter of…

— Karl Popper

It is the rule which says that the other rules of scientific procedure must be designed in such a way that they…

— Karl Popper

The difference between the amoeba and Einstein is that, although both make use of the method of trial and error elimination, the…

— Karl Popper

Thus science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention…

— Karl Popper

The scientific tradition is distinguished from the pre-scientific tradition by having two layers. Like the latter, it passes on its theories; but…

— Karl Popper

The growth of our knowledge is the result of a process closely resembling what Darwin called 'natural selection'; that is, the natural…

— Karl Popper

Understanding a theory has, indeed, much in common with understanding a human personality. We may know or understand a man's system of…

— Karl Popper

The metaphysical doctrine of determinism simply asserts that all events in this world are fixed, or unalterable, or predetermined. It does not…

— Karl Popper

“The discovery of instances which confirm a theory means very little if we have not tried, and failed, to discover refutations. For…

— Karl Popper

To give a causal explanation of an event means to deduce a statement which describes it, using as premises of the deduction…

— Karl Popper

I think that we shall have to get accustomed to the idea that we must not look upon science as a 'body…

— Karl Popper

Almost everyone... seems to be quite sure that the differences between the methodologies of history and of the natural sciences are vast.…

— Karl Popper

Science is not a system of certain, or -established, statements; nor is it a system which steadily advances towards a state of…

— Karl Popper

The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error.…

— Karl Popper

“With the idol of certainty (including that of degrees of imperfect certainty or probability) there falls one of the defences of obscurantism…

— Karl Popper

I think that there is only one way to science - or to philosophy, for that matter: to meet a problem, to…

— Karl Popper

“We all have an unscientific weakness for being always in the right, and this weakness seems to be particularly common among professional…

— Karl Popper

“Every time we proceed to explain some conjectural law or theory by a new conjectural theory of a higher degree of universality,…

— Karl Popper

“The difficulties connected with my criterion of demarcation (D) are important, but must not be exaggerated. It is vague, since it is…

— Karl Popper

In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable; and in so far as it is not…

— Karl Popper

Evolution is not a fact. Evolution doesn't even qualify as a theory or as a hypothesis. It is a metaphysical research program,…

— Karl Popper

Reason like science, grows by way of mutual criticism; the only possible way of planning its growth is to develop those institutions…

— Karl Popper

[The aim of science is] to explain what so far has taken to be an explicans, such as a law of nature.…

— Karl Popper

But some of these theories are so bold that they can clash with reality: they are the testable theories of science. And…

— Karl Popper

The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error.

— Karl Popper

The old scientific ideal of episteme - of absolutely certain, demonstrable knowledge - has proved to be an idol. The demand for…

— Karl Popper

There can be no ultimate statements science: there can be no statements in science which can not be tested, and therefore none…

— Karl Popper

The initial stage, the act of conceiving or inventing a theory, seems to me neither to call for logical analysis nor to…

— Karl Popper

The influence (for good or ill) of Plato's work is immeasurable. Western thought, one might say, has been Platonic or anti-Platonic, but…

— Karl Popper