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'One of the most important documents of the twentieth century.' – Peter Medawar, New Scientist
Richard Wollheim, The Observer
One of the most important philosophical works of our century
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
A scientist, whether theorist or experimenter, puts forward statements, or systems of statements, and tests them step by step. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
A scientist, whether theorist or experimenter, puts forward statements, or systems of statements, and tests them step by step. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is probably Popper's most famous work, in which he lays out his philosophy of science, focusing on the question of epistemology.
The book begins in a surprisingly accessible manner. I was expected some very high level philosophy that would be difficult to understand, but the translation is very easy to follow. Where he gets a little more obscure, he brings it back down-to-earth with examples that help to put his argument in context. I would describe the argument that Popper creates as being cumulative; that is, there are lots of references to earlier sections and, in particular, definitions.
For this reason, I would not recommend reading this book over a long period of time. I think it demands to be read quite intensively in as short a time as possible in order to ensure that one may follow it all.
The main thrust of Popper's argument is to say that theories are never verified, they can only be falsified. He dismantles the positivist point of view which led to empiricism and shows empiricism reduces to mere psychologism. From here, he then needs to discuss the degree of falsifiability. He considers a theory to be less likely the more ways it can possibly falsified. From here, what I think he should have done would then be to talk about corroboration and how a theory stands up to attempts to falsify it. Unfortunately, he leaves this to the end and instead goes off on a rather long and tortuous talk about probability.
This quite long section was the downside for me, as his discussion (and in particular, notation) was quite obscurantist, making it difficult to follow and quite oblique. From here, he moves on to talk about quantum mechanics and in particular the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
This brings me to my last point. If his theory is to be thought of as a scientific theory at all, then it must play by its own rules. That is to say, there must be a set of singular statements from this theory that can, in principle at least, be subject to testing to see if they can be falsified. Such a set of statements is not presented to the reader, so I could only conclude that while Popper's contribution is to be valued and considered, it doesn't constitute a scientific theory. It remains an application of metaphysics.
The book begins in a surprisingly accessible manner. I was expected some very high level philosophy that would be difficult to understand, but the translation is very easy to follow. Where he gets a little more obscure, he brings it back down-to-earth with examples that help to put his argument in context. I would describe the argument that Popper creates as being cumulative; that is, there are lots of references to earlier sections and, in particular, definitions.
For this reason, I would not recommend reading this book over a long period of time. I think it demands to be read quite intensively in as short a time as possible in order to ensure that one may follow it all.
The main thrust of Popper's argument is to say that theories are never verified, they can only be falsified. He dismantles the positivist point of view which led to empiricism and shows empiricism reduces to mere psychologism. From here, he then needs to discuss the degree of falsifiability. He considers a theory to be less likely the more ways it can possibly falsified. From here, what I think he should have done would then be to talk about corroboration and how a theory stands up to attempts to falsify it. Unfortunately, he leaves this to the end and instead goes off on a rather long and tortuous talk about probability.
This quite long section was the downside for me, as his discussion (and in particular, notation) was quite obscurantist, making it difficult to follow and quite oblique. From here, he moves on to talk about quantum mechanics and in particular the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
This brings me to my last point. If his theory is to be thought of as a scientific theory at all, then it must play by its own rules. That is to say, there must be a set of singular statements from this theory that can, in principle at least, be subject to testing to see if they can be falsified. Such a set of statements is not presented to the reader, so I could only conclude that while Popper's contribution is to be valued and considered, it doesn't constitute a scientific theory. It remains an application of metaphysics.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Read this book in conjunction with Popper's collection of essays 'Conjectures and Refutations' and you'll have acquired the best grounding in the philosophy of science that it's possible to achieve. Popper's account of scientific methodology begins from inverting the traditional inductivist method associated with (e.g.) Francis Bacon and emphasising instead the importance of science offering testable, quantitative conjectures that can be proven wrong through experiment and observation. Sounds simple enough in a nutshell but it's one of the few truly big ideas that philosophy of science has ever given us and it led Popper on to propose revolutionary (at least for philosophers) ideas about how science functions. I suspect Popper got closer than any other philosopher to capturing how science might actually work. One of the best things about Popperean philosophy of science is its thoroughgoing anti-authoritarianism - it's not who proposes a theory that determines whether or not it's scientific but rather how the theory may be tested. Ironically, the anti-methodological philosophies of science proposed by noted Popper critics like Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend lend themselves much more readily to authoritarian interpretations than Popper's falsificationism ever did. (Mark ye well, any postmodernist readers.) Perhaps contrary to popular belief (or caricature more like), Popper was pro-freedom, pro-intuition and pro-creativity in science - a refreshing set of beliefs. Granted, a lot has happened since Popper and I don't think Popper is beyond criticism - for example, he didn't really solve Hume's problem of induction and Darwinian natural selection is far more of a falsifiable theory than Popper seemed to realise - but then even Einstein isn't beyond criticism and Popper did do a heroic job of explaining and justifying scientific method. Now, what's the word for someone who achieves that kind of success again? Oh yes: "genius"; Karl Popper was (like it or not) a genius.
11 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
With millions of trees being massacred to debate "philosophy of maths and/or science", this is the only worthwhile sacrifice. Popper lays out directly what it means to be a science, how you evaluate a scientific theory and that you can never know you are right only that you are wrong.
Whilst there are other aspects that a proposed theory may have that makes it attractive over other possibilities, if it cannot be falsified, if it cannot be shown to leap through the experimental hoops that previous theories have managed then it is simply not going to get accepted. Falsifiability is sine non qua of any scientific theory, one only has to look at the pain String Theory is starting to go through to see that no matter how "beautiful", how smart it's proponents are - and String Theory has the absolute smartest - and how well-funded it is.... at the end of the day if you cannot make predictions that can be tested you will fail as a science.
Popper lays this out and it is a sad commentary that he is probably less read than people like Latour and Kuhn - just check the number of review for Kuhn vs the maestro. When the revolution comes and the trees take over the world, ALL the other philosophers and "sociologists" of science like Kuhn, Fuller, Latour etc will be the first up against the wall. I can't wait!
Whilst there are other aspects that a proposed theory may have that makes it attractive over other possibilities, if it cannot be falsified, if it cannot be shown to leap through the experimental hoops that previous theories have managed then it is simply not going to get accepted. Falsifiability is sine non qua of any scientific theory, one only has to look at the pain String Theory is starting to go through to see that no matter how "beautiful", how smart it's proponents are - and String Theory has the absolute smartest - and how well-funded it is.... at the end of the day if you cannot make predictions that can be tested you will fail as a science.
Popper lays this out and it is a sad commentary that he is probably less read than people like Latour and Kuhn - just check the number of review for Kuhn vs the maestro. When the revolution comes and the trees take over the world, ALL the other philosophers and "sociologists" of science like Kuhn, Fuller, Latour etc will be the first up against the wall. I can't wait!
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