Karl Popper
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper CH FBA FRSwas an Austrian-British philosopher and professor. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century...
NationalityAustrian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 July 1902
CountryAustria
mistake evolution speed
Our aim must be to make our successive mistakes as quickly as possible. To speed up evolution.
optimism chance responsible
Optimism is a duty. The future is open. It is not predetermined. No one can predict it, except by chance. We all contribute to determining it by what we do. We are all equally responsible for its success.
men law might
Science is not a system of certain, or -established, statements; nor is it a system which steadily advances towards a state of finality... And our guesses are guided by the unscientific, the metaphysical (though biologically explicable) faith in laws, in regularities which we can uncover-discover. Like Bacon, we might describe our own contemporary science-'the method of reasoning which men now ordinarily apply to nature'-as consisting of 'anticipations, rash and premature' and as 'prejudices'.
religion atheism theory
A theory is just a mathematical model to describe the observations.
ideas machines bigs
It is a myth that the success of science in our time is mainly due to the huge amounts of money that have been spent on big machines. What really makes science grow is new ideas, including false ideas.
crush successful men
A rationalist, as I use the word, is a man who attempts to reach decisions by argument and perhaps, in certain cases, by compromise, rather than by violence. He is a man who would rather be unsuccessful in convincing another man by argument than successful in crushing him by force, by intimidation and threats, or even by persuasive propaganda.
world all-things
All things living are in search of a better world .
asking conspiracy theory
The conspiracy theory of society... comes from abandoning god and then asking: "Who is in his place"
trying problem propose
Whenever we propose a solution to a problem, we ought to try as hard as we can to overthrow our solution, rather than defend it.
spring trouble impatience
Our greatest troubles spring from something that is as admirable as it is dangerous ... our impatience to better the lot of our fellows.
should-have atheism use
The use of violence is justified only under a tyranny which makes reforms without violence impossible, and should have only one aim, that is, to bring about a state of affairs which makes reforms without violence possible.
men objectivity society
There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. … It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory.
men civilization wish
If we wish our civilization to survive we must break with the habit of deference to great men.
history
There is no history, only histories.