Editing Karl Popper (section)

{{Short description|Austrian–British philosopher of science (1902–1994)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| honorific_prefix  = Sir
| name              = Karl Popper
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CH|FRS|FBA|size=100%}}
| image             = Karl Popper.jpg
| caption           = Popper in the 1980s
| birth_name        = Karl Raimund Popper
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1902|7|28|df=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Vienna]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date        = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1994|9|17|1902|7|28|df=yes}}}}
| death_place       = [[London]], England
| resting_place      = {{Interlanguage link|Lainzer Friedhof|de}}, Vienna, [[Republic of Austria]]
| citizenship       = {{ubl|Austria|United Kingdom (from 1945)}}
| era               = [[20th-century philosophy]]
| region            = [[Western philosophy]]
| school_tradition  = {{ubl|item_style={{longitem}}
|[[Analytic philosophy]]
|[[Critical rationalism]]
|[[Würzburg School]]{{sfn|IEP Critical rationalism}}
|[[Metaphysical realism]]<ref name="SEP">{{harvnb|Thornton|2015}} : "Popper professes to be anti-conventionalist, and his commitment to the correspondence theory of truth places him firmly within the realist's camp".</ref>
|[[Correspondence theory of truth]]<ref name=SEP />
|[[Interactionism (philosophy of mind)|Interactionism]]
|Liberalism{{sfn|IEP Popper political}}
}}
| main_interests    = {{ubl|item_style={{longitem}}
|[[Epistemology]]
|[[Rationality]]
|[[Philosophy of science]]
|[[Logic]]
|[[Social philosophy|Social]] and [[political philosophy]]
|[[Metaphysics]]
|[[Philosophy of mind]]
|[[Origin of life]]
|[[Interpretations of quantum mechanics]]
}}
| alma_mater        = [[University of Vienna]] (PhD, 1928)
| institutions      = {{plainlist|
* [[Canterbury University College]]
* [[London School of Economics]]
* [[King's College London]]
* [[Darwin College, Cambridge]]}}
| notable_ideas     = {{collapsible list|{{ubl|item_style={{longitem}}
|[[Bold hypothesis]]
|Critical rationalism
|[[Falsifiability]]
|Criticism of [[Dogmatic falsificationism|dogmatic]]/[[naive falsificationism]]
|[[Demarcation problem]]
|Evolutionary [[trial and error]] view of the [[growth of knowledge]]
|[[Propensity]] interpretation
|[[Open society]]
|[[Popper's three worlds]]
|Modified [[essentialism]]
|Criticism of [[justificationism]]
|Axiomatization of [[probability]]
|[[Popper's experiment]]
|Active [[Darwinism]]
|Spearhead model of [[evolution]]
|[[Criticism of psychoanalysis]]
|[[Situational logic]]
|[[Objective hermeneutics]]
|The [[paradox of tolerance]]
|Critical dualism (of facts and standards)
|[[Logic of scientific discovery]]
|Experimental [[corroboration]] as an indicator of [[verisimilitude]]/[[truthlikeness]]
|''Basissatz'' ([[basic statement]])
|The [[historicism]]–[[historism]] distinction
|[[Negative utilitarianism]]
|[[Philosophy of mathematics#Popper's two senses of number statements|Popper's two senses of number statements]]
|[[The Myth of the Framework|The "Myth of the Framework"]]
}}
|title={{nobold|''See list''}}
}}
| signature_alt     =
| signature_size    =
| website           =
| thesis_title      = Zur Methodenfrage der Denkpsychologie {{noitalic|(}}On Questions of Method in the Psychology of Thinking{{noitalic|)}}
| thesis_url        = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/312029829
| thesis_year       = 1928
| doctoral_advisor  = {{plainlist|
* [[Karl Ludwig Bühler]]
* [[Moritz Schlick]]}}
| doctoral_students = {{plainlist|
* [[Joseph Agassi]]
* [[Charles Leonard Hamblin]]
* [[A. I. Sabra]]}}
| notable_students  = {{plainlist|
* [[Donald A. Gillies]]
* [[John W. N. Watkins]]}}
| relatives         = [[Josef Popper-Lynkeus]] (uncle)
| awards            = [[Knight Bachelor]] (1965)
| signature         = Karl Popper Signature.svg
}}
[[File:Karl Popper (1902-1994), Nr. 104 bust (bronce) in the Arkadenhof of the University of Vienna-2485.jpg|thumb|upright|Popper bust in the Arkadenhof of the University of Vienna]]

'''Sir Karl Raimund Popper''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CH|FRS|FBA}}{{sfn|Miller|1997}} (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian–British<ref>Adams, I.; Dyson, R. W. (2007). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pirwOBYt9nsC&dq=Karl+Popper+british+citizen&pg=PA196 ''Fifty Major Political Thinkers'']. Routledge. p. 196. "He became a British citizen in 1945".</ref> philosopher, academic and [[social commentator]].{{sfn|Watkins|1997}}{{sfn|Watkins|1994}}<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/greatest_philosopher_karl_popper.shtml "Karl Popper (1902–94) advocated by Andrew Marr"]. BBC In Our Time – Greatest Philosopher. Retrieved January 2015.</ref> One of the 20th century's most influential [[philosophers of science]],{{sfn|Thornton|2015}}{{sfn|Horgan|1992}}{{sfn|IEP Popper scientific}} Popper is known for his rejection of the classical [[inductivist]] views on the [[scientific method]] in favour of [[Falsifiability|empirical falsification]], and for founding the [[London School of Economics|LSE's]] Department of Philosophy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rodgers |first=Ewan |date=2017-03-20 |title=The History of LSE Philosophy |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/history/ |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method |language=en-GB}}</ref> According to Popper, a theory in the [[empirical science]]s can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can (and should) be scrutinised with decisive experiments. Popper was opposed to the classical [[Justification (epistemology)|justificationist]] account of knowledge, which he replaced with "the first non-justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy", namely [[critical rationalism]].<ref>[[William W. Bartley]] (1964). [http://www.the-rathouse.com/2008/Bartley1964CCR.html "Rationality versus the Theory of Rationality"]. In Mario Bunge: ''The Critical Approach to Science and Philosophy'' (The Free Press of Glencoe). Section IX.</ref>

In political discourse, he is known for his vigorous defence of [[liberal democracy]] and the principles of [[social criticism]] that he believed made a flourishing [[open society]] possible. His political thought resides within the camp of Enlightenment rationalism and humanism. He was a dogged opponent of totalitarianism, nationalism, fascism, romanticism, collectivism, and other kinds of (in Popper's view) reactionary and irrational ideas, and identified modern [[liberal democracy|liberal democracies]] as the best-to-date embodiment of an open society.{{sfn|IEP Popper political}}