Karl Popper College Essays Samples For Students

Inquiry and Absolutes: Karl Popper and the ‘Poverty’ of Pseudo-Science

Karl Popper was notable for his criticism of Marx and Freud in that he regarded neither as having developed “testable” theories, a fact which neither could be considered scientific, he argued. In Popper’s view, theories that cannot be used predictively degenerate into the realm of “pseudo-scientific dogma” (Thornton, 2009), and it is this claim that helped define Popper as a decided opponent of relativism in all branches of science. It was his contention that Marx and Freud had turned to ad hoc hypotheses that do not belong in objective science. In Popper’s view, psychoanalysis and Marxism (as a socio-economic predictor) ...

Induction

Induction
The problem facing induction has been a great challenge presented by epistemology to various philosophers, among them David Hume. Since the 18th century, he has raised the induction concern to various philosophers with the aim of finding a solution to the dilemma. Karl Popper, Chalmers among others philosophers played an imperative role in identifying a considerable solution to the induction problem. In philosophy, induction is defined as a form of reasoning that is derived from a particular observation of a phenomenon and draws conclusions from the phenomenon. For instance, it is certain that the sun will rise tomorrow in the morning simply because ...

8) Wesley Salmon attacks Karl Popper on the grounds that his theory of science does not allow for theory choice based upon past corroboration. Are Popper's responses adequate? Why/why not?

The problem of induction has been a pervasive one that has split philosophers and empiricists for years. Essentially, the issue lies in whether or not inductive reasoning can bring about true knowledge; whether anything can be truly known. The debate is split between whether or not a generalization based on a set number of observations can be true (e.g., since all elephants observed are gray, all elephants must, by virtue of fact, ...

Concept of Falsifiability and the History of Science

Falsifiability as a concept in philosophy was introduced by Karl Popper to test scientific concepts. For instance, philosophy is much concerned with determining the manifestation of truth in any accepted fact by employing philosophical methods. On the other hand, science has been in the limelight of investigating the facts using the empirical justification. In this precept, philosophy and science have a common obligation to identify the facts of ideas as presented (Popper 13). According the senses from the concept of falsifiability, every claim that assures truth of any fact must be meticulous and provide every meaning in a way ...

The Scientific Revolution has been subjected to philosophical evaluation for quite a long time. Among the most prominent people that have subjected the scientific revolution to a thorough thought process is Thomas Kuhn. According to Thomas Kuhn, scientific history has been characterized by changes in the scientific outlook (Dilworth 70). This can be best explained by the fact that the scientific community usually accepts a dominant paradigm, until anomalies arise. As time passes, scientists question the paradigm itself from which new ideas and theories emerge, further changing the outlook. In support of Kuhn’s views, this paper seeks to explain that the ...

The scientific method is based on four basic steps. Firstly there is an observation of a phenomenon. Secondly, a hypothesis is formed which takes the form of an if-then statement. Thirdly, a hypothesis is used to make predictions of what will occur. Finally, those predictions are tested in a series of experiments (What is the “scientific method”?, 1998). The purpose of the scientific method is to create a road map that can be easily replicated by someone if they wanted to test to see if your conclusions were accurate. A hallmark of good science is the reproducibility of results, that is, the results ...

When making statements regarding facts or the possibility of fact, they are often looked at through a certain mindset. One may believe that a statement should be true unless proven otherwise, or one may think that a statement should always be seen with a degree of skepticism. This dichotomy, in terms of philosophy, is often indicative of the tug of war found between the ideas of logical positivism and Karl Popper's criterion of falsifiability. In this essay, we will examine the primary contrasts between the two philosophies, and why Popper so ardently disagrees with the concept of logical positivism.

Logical positivism claims that ...