Karl Popper Quotes on Knowledge
Popper's Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934, English 1959) replaced the verificationist criterion of meaning that had organized the Vienna Circle's logical empiricism with the falsificationist criterion of demarcation: a theory is scientific just in case it is capable of being refuted by some possible observation, and the conjectural growth of scientific knowledge proceeds through the proposing of bold theories and their relentless attempted refutation. The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) and The Poverty of Historicism extend the framework into political philosophy: piecemeal social engineering open to public criticism is the political analogue of empirical science, and the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century are the political analogue of unfalsifiable pseudoscience.
Quotes
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“All life is problem solving.”
When I speak of reason or rationalism , all I mean is the conviction that we can learn through criticism of our mistakes and errors, especially through criticism by others, and eventually also through self-criticism. A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others — not by simply taking over another's opini -
“Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”
Variant translation: The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, clear, and well-defined will be our knowledge of what we do not know , our knowledge of our ignorance. The main source of our ignorance lies in the fact that our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite. -
“We do not know: we can only guess.”
Ch. 10 "Corroboration, or How a Theory Stands up to Tests", section 85: The Path of Science, p. 278. -
“If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations.”
The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method -
“Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.”
Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (1972) -
Attributed to Karl Popper:
“There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life.”
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“Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.”
As quoted in My Universe : A Transcendent Reality (2011) by Alex Vary, Part II -
“Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.”
Ch. 1 "Science : Conjectures and Refutations", Section VII -
“The Problem of Induction" (1953, 1974)”
The answer to this problem is: as implied by Hume, we certainly are not justified in reasoning from an instance to the truth of the corresponding law. But to this negative result a second result, equally negative, may be added: we are justified in reasoning from a counterinstance to the falsity of the corresponding universal law (that is, of any law of which it is a counterinstance). Or in other w -
“The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 22 The Unholy Alliance with Utopianism”
Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology . (All that technology may say about ends is whether they are compatible with each other or realizable.) -
“The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method”
If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted. -
“Epistemology Without A Knowing Subject (1967)”
Scientists try to eliminate their false theories, they try to let them die in their stead. The believer—whether animal or man—perishes with his false beliefs. -
“Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (1972)”
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve. -
“For it was my master who taught me not only how very little I knew but also that any wisdom to which I might ever aspire could consist only in realizing more fully the infinity of my ignorance.”
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