Karl Popper was a 20th century philosopher of science, best known for his work on falsifiability. He was critical of the ideas put forth by previous philosophers such as Carnap, that science works by verifying your theories through examination of the world. He said that many theories that were not scientific could be successfully verified by either making vague predictions, or through ad hoc adjustments to the theory. For example a horoscope can predict something vague like “you will have a pleasant surprise later this week”. Then you find some forgotten money in your pocket, and the horoscope was seemingly verified to be true! However since nearly anything could have verified it, since it was so vague, this does not count as science.
He was particularly critical of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis and Marx’s theory of historical materialism, both of which were considered scientific by many at the time, but seemed to explain almost all sets of observable data. Instead he suggested that scientific theories must put forwards highly specific predictions, and the scientists must then work to falsify, rather than verify, the theory.
I like Popper’s falsifiability idea and I like his critical thinking style in general. His philosophy works are good to read. I recommend the myth of the framework. When you see his style I can understand why he’d not have much patience for Marx’s dialectics.
On the flip side, Popper never used those critical thinking skills on himself. He was critical of Marx but then he became part of the Neo Liberal scene and founded the Mont Pelerin Society with the likes of Hayek and Mises. Like ok if you don’t want to class economics as a science that’s one thing but don’t go and side with these clowns.
Another example of his lack of self awareness is his staunch defense of Cartesian dualism which completely contridicts his falsifiability idea.
So, I have mixed feelings about Popper. He’s worth reading but also worth reading about as he’s partly full of shit.
I also really like the idea of falsifiability, but Popper seemed to not apply it at all when it came to communist countries, being blinded by western propaganda.
In his lifetime the USSR became a world superpower despite starting out at an extremely low level of economic development, won a world war and saved the world from fascism, eliminated illiteracy, raised life expectancy, and went into space.