Karl Popper

Known for

The Open Society and Its Enemies, falsifiability

Thought

Popper argued that no amount of observation can ever prove a scientific theory true, since a single contrary observation can disprove it — so the mark of a genuinely scientific theory is that it could, in principle, be falsified, not that it has been confirmed. He extended this fallibilism to politics, arguing any ideology claiming certain, final knowledge of history or society tends toward totalitarianism, and that open, democratic societies must instead allow ideas and policies to be criticized and revised.

Biography

Austrian-British philosopher of science who fled Nazi-annexed Austria in 1937 and spent much of his later career in Britain, also writing influentially on politics.

CSS Philosophy paper topics

Major works

• The Open Society and Its Enemies
• The Logic of Scientific Discovery