Karl Popper Quotes - Page 5

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• The metaphysical doctrine of determinism simply asserts that all events in this world are fixed, or unalterable, or predetermined. It does not assert that they are known to anybody, or predictable by scientific means. But it asserts that the future is as little changeable as is the past. Everybody knows what we mean when we say that the past cannot be changed. It is in precisely the same sense that the future cannot be changed, according to metaphysical determinism.

  Karl Popper

  Future, Mean, Science

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• Science is perhaps the only human activity in which errors are systematically criticized and, in time, corrected.

  Karl Popper

  Science, Errors, Humans

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• Reason like science, grows by way of mutual criticism; the only possible way of planning its growth is to develop those institutions that safeguard. the freedom of thought

  Karl Popper

  Growth, Criticism, Way

  Karl Popper (2012). “The Open Society and its Enemies”, p.499, Routledge

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• The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth; nor does he think that mere criticism as such helps us achieve new ideas. But he does think that, in the sphere of ideas, only critical discussion can help us sort the wheat from the chaff.

  Karl Popper

  Thinking, Ideas, Criticism

  Karl Popper (2013). “All Life is Problem Solving”, p.84, Routledge

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• What really makes science grow is new ideas, including false ideas.

  Karl Popper

  Ideas, Grows, New Ideas

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• In point of fact, no conclusive disproof of a theory can ever be produced; for it is always possible to say that the experimental results are not reliable or that the discrepancies which are asserted to exist between the experimental results and the theory are only apparent and that they will disappear with the advance of our understanding. If you insist on strict proof (or strict disproof) in the empirical sciences, you will never benefit from experience, and never learn from it how wrong you are.

  Karl Popper

  Science, Understanding, Benefits

  "The Logic of Scientific Discovery".

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• [Great scientists] are men of bold ideas, but highly critical of their own ideas: they try to find whether their ideas are right by trying first to find whether they are not perhaps wrong. They work with bold conjectures and severe attempts at refuting their own conjectures.

  Karl Popper

  Hard Work, Science, Greatness

  Sir Karl Raimund Popper, Karl Raimund Popper (1974). “The Philosophy of Karl Popper”

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• There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.

  Karl Popper

  Political, World, Kind

  The Open Society and its Enemies (1945) vol. 2, ch. 25

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• I have spoken to Einstein and he admitted to me that his theory was in fact no different from the one of Parmenides.

  Karl Popper

  Different, Facts, Theory

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• Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

  Karl Popper

  Criticism, Myth

  In C. A. Mace (ed.) 'British Philosophy in the Mid-Century' 'The Philosophy of Science'

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• There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory.

  Karl Popper

  Men, Objectivity, Society

  "The Importance of Critical Discussion". "On the Barricades: Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict" by Robert Basil, 1989.

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• The belief in a political Utopia is especially dangerous. This is possibly connected with the fact that the search for a better world, like the investigation of our environment, is (if I am correct) one of the oldest and most important of all the instincts.

  Karl Popper

  Political, Important, Facts

  Karl Popper (2012). “In Search of a Better World: Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years”, p.28, Routledge

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• It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory-if we look for confirmations. Confirmations should count only if they are the result of risky predictions... A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice. Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or refute it.

  Karl Popper

  Science, Thinking, People

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• Historically speaking all - or very nearly all - scientific theories originate from myths.

  Karl Popper

  Theory, Myth, Scientific Theory

  Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.50, Routledge

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• It is wrong and dangerous to extol freedom by telling people that they will certainly be all right once they are free. The most we can say of democracy or freedom is that they give our personal abilities a little more influence on our well-being.

  Karl Popper

  People, Giving, Democracy

  "On Freedom (All Life is Problem Solving)". Essay by Karl Popper, translated by Patrick Camiller, 1994.

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• Thus science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention of experiments, but with the critical discussion of myths, and of magical techniques and practices.

  Karl Popper

  Science, Practice, Criticism

  Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.87, Routledge

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• All we can do is search for the falsity content in our best theory.

  Karl Popper

  Science, Theory, Falsity

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• I have learned more from Hayek than from any other living thinker, except perhaps Alfred Tarski - but not even excepting Russell.

  Karl Popper

  Hayek, I Have Learned, Thinker

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• Criticism of my alleged views was widespread and highly successful. I have yet to meet a criticism of my views.

  Karl Popper

  Successful, Criticism

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Simple statements are to be prized more highly than less simple ones because they tell us more; because their empirical content is greater; and because they are better testable.

  Karl Popper

  Simple, Greater, Statements

  Karl Popper (2005). “The Logic of Scientific Discovery”, p.128, Routledge

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• I do not overlook the fact that there are irrationalists who love mankind, and that not all forms of irrationalism engender criminality. But I hold that he who teaches that not reason but love should rule opens up the way for those who rule by hate. (Socrates, I believe, saw something of this when he suggested that mistrust or hatred of argument is related to mistrust or hatred of man).

  Karl Popper

  Hate, Believe, Men

  "The Open Society and Its Enemies". Book by Karl Popper. Volume 2, Chapter 24: "Oracular Philosophy and the Revolt against Reason", 1945.

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• A theory is just a mathematical model to describe the observations.

  Karl Popper

  Religion, Atheism, Theory

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• I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme.

  Karl Popper

  Research, Evolution, Metaphysical

  Karl Popper (2005). “Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography”, p.195, Routledge

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• Every discovery contains an irrational element or a creative intuition.

  Karl Popper

  Discovery, Creative, Intuition

  Karl Popper (2005). “The Logic of Scientific Discovery”, p.8, Routledge

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• The fundamental thing about human languages is that they can and should be used to describe something; and this something is, somehow, the world. To be constantly and almost exclusively interested in the medium - in spectacle-cleaning - is a result of a philosophical mistake.

  Karl Popper

  Mistake, Philosophical, Fundamentals

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