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Portrait of Karl Popper

Karl Popper

(1902–1994) Philosopher Of Science Austria

181 quotes in 893 categories

Karl Popper was a philosopher of science from Austria, best known for The Open Society and Its Enemies (1+2).

Quick Facts About Karl Popper

Born: July 28, 1902
Died: September 17, 1994
Nationality: Austria
Profession: Philosopher Of Science
Notable works: The Open Society and Its Enemies (1+2)
Known for: The Open Society and Its Enemies, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Conjectures and Refutations, The Poverty of Historicism, Unended Quest
Spouse: Josefine Anna Henninger

About Karl Popper

Sir Karl Raimund Popper was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method in favour of empirical falsification made possible by his falsifiability criterion, and for founding the Department of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. According to Popper, a theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can be scrutinised with decisive experiments. Popper was opposed to the classical justificationist account of knowledge, which he replaced with "the first non-justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy", namely critical rationalism.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Awards & Honors

Catalonia International Prize Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Otto Hahn Peace Medal Montyon Prize Goethe Medal Knight Bachelor Sonning Prize Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize

Show 16 more awards

Ring of Honour of the City of Vienna Prix Alexis de Tocqueville Companion of Honour Great Golden Medal of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria Fellow of the British Academy honorary doctor of the University of Vienna Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy Benjamin E. Lippincott Award Great Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts order honorary doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense honorary doctorate of Salzburg University honorary doctor of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi honorary doctor of the University of Canterbury http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/88340bfa2d5d13720dd939c9c1b0f453

Quotes by Karl Popper

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

Accounts

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“As indicated by our example, methodological nominalism is nowadays fairly generally accepted in the natural sciences. The problems of the social sciences,…

Science

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

Activity

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A system is empirical or scientific only if it is capable of being tested by experience. These considerations suggest that not the…

Atheism

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Bold ideas, unjustified anticipations, and speculative thought, are our only means for interpreting nature: our only organon, our only instrument, for grasping…

Anticipation

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

Aim

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

Can not

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

Biology

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

Adoption

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

Dream

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Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.

Alive

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There is no pure, disinterested, theory-free observation,

Disinterested

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We have the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should tolerate even them whenever we can do so without running a…

Atheism

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Better our hypotheses die for our errors than ourselves.

Dies

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

Knowledge

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I have spoken to Einstein and he admitted to me that his theory was in fact no different from the one of…

Different

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

Grows

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There is no history, only histories.

Funny

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Every intellectual has a very special responsibility. He has the privilege and the opportunity of studying. In return, he owes it to…

Can do

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Historically speaking all - or very nearly all - scientific theories originate from myths.

Myth

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[To] interpret Parmenides as a Kant before Kant ... this is exactly what we must do.

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“Perhaps the most powerful cause of the breakdown of the closed society was the development of sea-communications and commerce. Close contact with…

Business

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No number of sightings of white swans can prove the theory that all swans are white. The sighting of just one black…

Black

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Aestheticism and radicalism must lead us to jettison reason, and to replace it by a desperate hope for political miracles. This irrational…

Appeals

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“Theories are nets cast to catch what we call 'the world': to rationalize, to explain, and to master it. We endeavor to…

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Karl Popper by topic

Science (59) Theory (34) May (22) Should (16) Men (15) Knows (15) Ifs (15) Ideas (15) World (12) Knowledge (12) Philosophy (11) Life (11) Inspirational (11) Criticism (11) Love (10)