Karl Popper, Science and Enlightenment

Karl Popper, Science and Enlightenment PDF Author: Nicholas Maxwell
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 178735041X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Book Description
Here is an idea that just might save the world. It is that science, properly understood, provides us with the methodological key to the salvation of humanity. A version of this idea can be found in the works of Karl Popper. Famously, Popper argued that science cannot verify theories but can only refute them, and this is how science makes progress. Scientists are forced to think up something better, and it is this, according to Popper, that drives science forward.But Nicholas Maxwell finds a flaw in this line of argument. Physicists only ever accept theories that are unified – theories that depict the same laws applying to the range of phenomena to which the theory applies – even though many other empirically more successful disunified theories are always available. This means that science makes a questionable assumption about the universe, namely that all disunified theories are false. Without some such presupposition as this, the whole empirical method of science breaks down.By proposing a new conception of scientific methodology, which can be applied to all worthwhile human endeavours with problematic aims, Maxwell argues for a revolution in academic inquiry to help humanity make progress towards a better, more civilized and enlightened world.

Karl Popper, Science and Enlightenment

Karl Popper, Science and Enlightenment PDF Author: Nicholas Maxwell
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1787350401
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Book Description
Here is an idea that just might save the world. It is that science, properly understood, provides us with the methodological key to the salvation of humanity. A version of this idea can be found in the works of Karl Popper. Famously, Popper argued that science cannot verify theories but can only refute them, and this is how science makes progress. Scientists are forced to think up something better, and it is this, according to Popper, that drives science forward.But Nicholas Maxwell finds a flaw in this line of argument. Physicists only ever accept theories that are unified – theories that depict the same laws applying to the range of phenomena to which the theory applies – even though many other empirically more successful disunified theories are always available. This means that science makes a questionable assumption about the universe, namely that all disunified theories are false. Without some such presupposition as this, the whole empirical method of science breaks down.By proposing a new conception of scientific methodology, which can be applied to all worthwhile human endeavours with problematic aims, Maxwell argues for a revolution in academic inquiry to help humanity make progress towards a better, more civilized and enlightened world.

The World of Parmenides

The World of Parmenides PDF Author: Karl Popper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317835018
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 339

Book Description
This unique collection of essays, published together for the first time, not only elucidates the complexity of ancient Greek thought, but also reveals Karl Popper's engagement with Presocratic philosophy and the enlightenment he experienced in his reading of Parmenides. As Karl Popper himself states himself in his introduction, he was inspired to write about Presocratic philosophy for two reasons - firstly to illustrate the thesis that all history is the history of problem situations and secondly, to show the greatness of the early Greek philosophers, who gave Europe its philosophy, its science and its humanism.

Karl Popper, Science and Enlightenment

Karl Popper, Science and Enlightenment PDF Author: Nicholas Maxwell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781787350373
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Book Description
By exploring and challenging Karl Popper's philosophy of science, Nicholas Maxwell argues for a revolution in academic inquiry to help humanity make progress towards a better, more civilized and enlightened world.

Popper, Objectivity and the Growth of Knowledge

Popper, Objectivity and the Growth of Knowledge PDF Author: John H. Sceski
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 144112019X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Book Description
John H. Sceski argues that Karl Popper's philosophy offers a radical treatment of objectivity that can reconcile freedom and progress in a manner that preserves the best elements of the Enlightenment tradition. His book traces the development of Popper's account of objectivity by examining his original contributions to key issues in the philosophy of science. Popper's early confrontation with logical positivism, his rarely discussed four-fold treatment of the problem of induction, and his theory of propensities and evolutionary epistemology are linked in a novel way to produce a coherent and philosophically relevant picture of objectivity. Sceski also explores and clarifies many central issues in the philosophy of science such as probabilistic support, verisimilitude, and the relationship between special relativity and indeterminism. He concludes that Popper's account of objectivity can best bridge the gap between Enlightenment aims for science and freedom and post-modern misgivings about 'truth', by developing a philosophy that is non-foundationalist yet able to account for the growth of knowledge.

Karl Popper, Science and Enightenment

Karl Popper, Science and Enightenment PDF Author: Nicholas Maxwell
Publisher: Saint Philip Street Press
ISBN: 9781013288517
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Book Description
Here is an idea that just might save the world. It is that science, properly understood, provides us with the methodological key to the salvation of humanity. A version of this idea can be found in the works of Karl Popper. Famously, Popper argued that science cannot verify theories but can only refute them, and this is how science makes progress. Scientists are forced to think up something better, and it is this, according to Popper, that drives science forward. But Nicholas Maxwell finds a flaw in this line of argument. Physicists only ever accept theories that are unified - theories that depict the same laws applying to the range of phenomena to which the theory applies - even though many other empirically more successful disunified theories are always available. This means that science makes a questionable assumption about the universe, namely that all disunified theories are false. Without some such presupposition as this, the whole empirical method of science breaks down. By proposing a new conception of scientific methodology, which can be applied to all worthwhile human endeavours with problematic aims, Maxwell argues for a revolution in academic inquiry to help humanity make progress towards a better, more civilized and enlightened world. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

In Search of a Better World

In Search of a Better World PDF Author: Karl Popper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135975086
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Book Description
'I want to begin by declaring that I regard scientific knowledge as the most important kind of knowledge we have', writes Sir Karl Popper in the opening essay of this book, which collects his meditations on the real improvements science has wrought in society, in politics and in the arts in the course of the twentieth century. His subjects range from the beginnings of scientific speculation in classical Greece to the destructive effects of twentieth century totalitarianism, from major figures of the Enlightenment such as Kant and Voltaire to the role of science and self-criticism in the arts. The essays offer striking new insights into the mind of one of the greatest twentieth century philosophers.

Realism and the Aim of Science

Realism and the Aim of Science PDF Author: Karl Popper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135858950
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Book Description
Realism and the Aim of Science is one of the three volumes of Karl Popper’s Postscript to the Logic of scientific Discovery. The Postscript is the culmination of Popper’s work in the philosophy of physics and a new famous attack on subjectivist approaches to philosophy of science. Realism and the Aim of Science is the first volume of the Postcript. Popper here formulates and explains his non-justificationist theory of knowledge: science aims at true explanatory theories, yet it can never prove, or justify, any theory to be true, not even if is a true theory. Science must continue to question and criticise all its theories, even those that happen to be true. Realism and the Aim of Science presents Popper’s mature statement on scientific knowledge and offers important insights into his thinking on problems of method within science.

The Philosophy of Karl Popper

The Philosophy of Karl Popper PDF Author: Karl Raimund Popper
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description


Karl Popper, Science and Enightenment

Karl Popper, Science and Enightenment PDF Author: Nicholas Maxwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Book Description
Here is an idea that just might save the world. It is that science, properly understood, provides us with the methodological key to the salvation of humanity. A version of this idea can be found in the works of Karl Popper. Famously, Popper argued that science cannot verify theories but can only refute them, and this is how science makes progress. Scientists are forced to think up something better, and it is this, according to Popper, that drives science forward. But Nicholas Maxwell finds a flaw in this line of argument. Physicists only ever accept theories that are unified - theories that depict the same laws applying to the range of phenomena to which the theory applies - even though many other empirically more successful disunified theories are always available. This means that science makes a questionable assumption about the universe, namely that all disunified theories are false. Without some such presupposition as this, the whole empirical method of science breaks down. By proposing a new conception of scientific methodology, which can be applied to all worthwhile human endeavours with problematic aims, Maxwell argues for a revolution in academic inquiry to help humanity make progress towards a better, more civilized and enlightened world.