Category Archives: Uncategorized

Working on the early reception of Popper’s ideas and the way the “Popper Legend” became established – the idea that he could be aggregated with the positivists and logical empiricists and hence ignored when their program was eventually discredited. Starting … Continue reading →

On my revisiting “Realism and the Aim of Science: from the Postscript to the Logic of Scientific Discovery” (1983), written around 1951-56, it is apparent that the concept of critical preference is emphasized. In considering falsifiability and falsification in isolation … Continue reading →

Feynman’s account of the procedure for looking for a scientific law: Guess, compute the consequences of the guess, check if they agree with the evidence and if the evidence persistently refuses to agree, the guess (hypothesis) is wrong. Science is about … Continue reading →

Habermas is probably the last high-profile member of the Frankfurt School of German Marxists. Google up Frankfurt School for more information, other key players were Horkheimer, Adorno and Marcuse. These were big names in decades past but the world has … Continue reading →

This book makes interesting reading in parallel with Popper’s introductory lectures on the philosophy of science. Jim Watson’s  book The Double Helix demonstrated how  Watson and his colleague Francis Crick engaged in Popperian “conjecture and refutation”;  here Crick did even … Continue reading →

STANDARD CRITICISMS and ERRORS 1. The falsifiability criterion is about meaning. 2. “Falsification cannot be decisive”. 3. Failure to draw the distinction between falsifiability (a matter of logic and the form of     statements) and falsification (a practical matter). 4. “Scientists don’t practice falsification”. 5. “Falsificationism … Continue reading →

Work is proceeding to document some of the extent of defective Popper sholarship. The outline can be found on this page that I have set up to avoid putting up monster posts on this site. The idea is to produce … Continue reading →

Ian Jarvie studied anthropology at the London School of  Economics, drifted into Popper’s orbit and became a research assistant. He has done good work in partnership with Joe Agassi and he is one of the Popperian quiet achievers like Peter Munz, producing a steady … Continue reading →

Alert observers may have noticed occasional references to the Austrian tourist-turned-Brit Karl Popper in my scribbling over the years, starting around 1972 when the story broke about Popper’s encounter with Bazza Mackenzie. That story never made the mainstream media. Like … Continue reading →

Barry Gower on Scientific Method. The question that has to be asked about recent books on the philosophy of science is: Does this book explain the four “turns” that Karl Popper introduced? These are (1) the conjectural turn, to explain … Continue reading →