Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994)

 "Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell. "

- Karl Popper

Biography

• Born in Vienna, Austria on July 28, 1902.
• Raised in a Lutheran household, although he eventually became an agnostic.
• In 1919 became interested in Marxist politics.
• Joined the Social Democratic Party of Austria, which at the time fully embraced Marxist teachings.
• Received a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Vienna.
• Taught secondary school from 1930 to 1936.
• At the rise of Nazism in Europe, Karl Popper emigrated to New Zealand in 1939, where he taught philosophy and the University of New Zealand.
• In 1946 he began teaching at the London School of Economics, in (obviously) London, England.
• He re-released and English version of his arguably most important work, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, in 1959.
• He was knighted in 1965.
• Retired from the University of London in 1969.
• Died on September 17, 1994 at the age of 92.
• He is regarded as one of the most important philosophers since Francis Bacon and one of the most important and influential people of the 20th Century.
• Karl Popper once said "When should a theory be ranked as scientific" meaning is the theory a part of science or just a theory.
• He showed how we can't prove that a theory is true.
• He also showed you can prove a prediction false.
• Karl Popper said, "If the theory is true, then the prediction is true. The prediction is not true. Therefore, the theory is not true."
• Poppers main theory was the modus tolens of critical testing.
• In poppers philosophy offers Hume's problem, which the problem of induction.

Karl Popper Quotes

• "Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite".  

• "No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude." 

• "It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." 

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

Popper's Philosophy

Open Society

• Popper was a stalwart advocate for an "open society."
• This concept was first thought up by Henri Bergson.
• An open society rejects the idea of a utopia, in the way of making society for individuals instead of a community. This thought is exemplified in the quote "Those who promise us paradise on earth never produce anything but a hell." Meaning pretty much, a utopian society can never work, but instead humans must make their own decisions to happiness, not rely on the government or society to make those decisions.
• Another aspect of an open society is it is one that ensures that a government can be overthrown peacefully by citizens, as opposed to the norm of a government being overthrown by another establishment by force, this latter example is called a Coup d'état.
• The concept of an open society is in much contrast to totalitarianism and communism, which both stress unity among the citizens.

Critical Rationalism

• Popper believed that for something to be a scientific fact, it must be able to be falsified.

• This meant that many things cannot be proven, for instance, Gravity. For all we know, there could be millions of invisible special magnets under us pulling us down, there is, of course, almost zero chance of this being true, but can one prove there isn't? Because of this, there is no way to prove gravity's actuality. According to Popper, it's just a theory, a damn good theory mind you.
• But also on this subject, Popper also meant, just because something is not explicitly provable, this does not mean it cannot enlighten us. An example was Darwin's theory of evolution, while this cannot be proven using the method above  (because there is no way to scientifically test it), it does mean it has had an almost unlimited effect on modern science. (See: Karl Popper on Darwinism)
• A simple way to get this concept is to think of that game "Guess Who?." You must do things to knock out every other possibility (in this case, people) which would leave you with one left, and that'd be the answer.

Problem of Induction

•  One of Popper's biggest goals was to answer the problem of induction. The question in itself is, is using consistent past occurrences rational to predict what will happen? i.e. The Sun rises every day, but what necessarily makes us so sure it will rise tomorrow?
• This theory of Poppers went along with his theory of Critical Rationalism in the way that, everything has to be proved, it isn't rational just to answer questions with out disproving every other possibility, thus leaving us with the only answer.
• Popper argued science cannot use induction as a means to an answer, but must use deduction (critical rationalism)

Sources

• The Karl Popper Web
• Karl Popper at Wikipedia
• Karl Popper at the Stanford Enyclopia of Philosophy
• Karl Popper Quotes
• Popper's Philosophy of Science
• Sir Karl Popper

Views on Euthanasia

• Karl Popper was for the open society so Popper would of been for euthanasia because an open society is where people make their own decisions.

• Meaning nor society nor morals should make people's decisions. So an individual would have every right to kill themselves.

  

Karl Popper On Plato

     Karl Popper was a scientific philosopher. He believed that something could not be a fact until it was proven correctly. This means Popper would not of believed in plato's perfect society in my opinion. I think this because how is someone to prove your best quality to perform a job for there life. This means how could you know that your best quality is the right thing for you. This subject can go either way for Popper. That is because what if the qualitys you were born with were proovin correctly. With testing, DNA and other abilities used for the matter.  Otherwise I believe Popper would of not been for Plato's perfect society. 

     Another reason Popper would be against it, was he was strictly against a utopian society.  "Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell. "   Was a quote by Popper, this quote perfectly represents a very anti-utopian point of view. He believed in personal decision, not having people order you what do to

Popper on Technology

     karl Popper was a scientific philosopher and was very into proving the correct answer with his philosophy or science. I think that karl popper would be for Technology because him being a scientific philosopher would of gave him more correct answers and better sources. I also think that Karl Popper would of liked Technology is that it gave the correct answers for what he needed. Theres is not much information on Karl Popper and his thoughts on technology but for how much i have studied him and learned more about him i believe that kalrl Popper would be for technology.

(note to Pogreba: The wiki editor works noticably better using IE7. I'm guessing the editor was made with IE in mind, considering most folks use it, which is bad because I do not have it on my home computer.)