7 - Falsification & Popper
Karl Popper (1902-94) was strongly critical of positivists
Critical Rationalism
'Wittgenstein is a dogmatist'
No theory is ever verified
dogmatic theory; theory is not affected by empirical facts
Falsificationism; the best option to distinguish science from non-science
Some theories are impossible to refute, like false consciousness in marxism
Verifiability is too strict; logically impossible and failing to acknowledge e.g. scientific value of newton
Confirmability is too weak; favouring tautology over menaingful statements
Falsifiability is the best; it must be possible to prove that a theory is wrong
Theories should not be verified or confirmed
They can be corroborated which means that attempts to falsify them have failed so far
Only theories that can be falsified are informative
they become specific and informative if falsifiable
Humans will always be looking for absolute knowledge
what we can do is to locate, remove and correct our mistakes
Knowledge grows through conjectures and refutations, trial and error
Unlike induction, deduction is logically valid
Deduction is the only way to advance science
Risky predictions are necessary
These predictions need to be tested under the severest possible circumstances
Agrees with Kant on that we can only know phenomenal world through theories
Social science are trends, not laws, because of the difficulty with finding accuracy