Friday, December 02, 2005


KARL POPPER
Karl Popper exerted profound influence upon the thought of modern
science and the various philosophical questions posed by
scientific intrusion into a world heretofore not prepared for the
questions that challenged the most profound beliefs of inquiry into
the origins of things.

"Sir Karl Raimund Popper rose... to become one of the most influential

theorists and leading philosophers and commanded international audiences
and conversation with him was....a myriad of philosophical problems.
His intense desire to tear away at the veneer of falsity in pursuit of the truth
lead him to contribute to a field of thought encompassing (among others)

political theory, quantum mechanics, logic, scientific method and
evolutionary theory. Popper challenged some of the ruling orthodoxies
of philosophy: logical positivism, Marxism, determinism and linguistic
philosophy. He argued that there are no subject matters but only problems
and our desire to solve them. He said hat scientific theories
cannot be verified but only tentatively refuted, and that the best

philosophy is about profound problems, not word meanings...
Through his ideas Popper promoted a critical ethos, a world in
which the give and take of debate is highly esteemed
in the precept that we are all infinitely ignorant, that we differ only in

the little bits of knowledge that we do have, and that with some
co-operative effort we may get nearer to the truth.

"Popper regarded his solutions to the problems of induction and the demarcation

of science from pseudo- science as his greatest contributions.... Popper's work
is important not just to those who agree with his new bold solutions, but to
everyone who recognizes the importance of the problems that Popper discovered,
analysed and reformulated in a way that allows a solution. ...

"To take just three examples, the problems of verisimilitude, of probability
(a life-long love of his), and of the relationship between the mind and body
will never look the same now that Popper has made important progress in charting
the intricate structure of these problems and in offering at least partial solutions.
Yet there are books on the mind/body problem, for instance, that simply do not
mention Popper's work (for more on this attempted "refutation by neglect", see
the introductory reading list....)"


Thus, only in the asking of right questions can solutions to
a problem be found.

About Me

Have been working on Pardue Genealogy for many years. Genealogy is always a work in progress!