Karl Popper, or Sir Karl Popper (he was knighted in 1965), was one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. He is best known for promoting the view that scientific theories ought to be falsifiable, and can not be confirmed via induction. However, this was only one of several influential theories he advanced about the nature of science, and about the nature of knowledge in general. His larger aim was to challenge both the “language philosophy” and the positivist philosophy of science dominant in Vienna in the 1920s and 1930s which he encountered as a student. Popper regarded inquiries into the formal or logical structure of the language of science as a fruitless enterprise, and he intended to replace it with what he termed a “critical rationalism”. For Popper,…
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Citation: Plutynski, Anya. "Sir Karl Popper". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3600, accessed 23 November 2024.]
