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Karl Popper, Birth
Karl Raimund Popper was born to Jewish parents in Vienna, Austria July 28th, 1902. His father was a lawyer and his mother a pianist, whom of which had three children. One of which would soon change how we think about science. -
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Marxism
In 1919, at about 17 years old Popper became a Communist and a Marxist. He invested in learning about left-wing politics. The more he learned about Marxism the more it didn’t add up. In comparing the ideas and way of thinking of Karl Marx and Albert Einstein, he found it to be irrefutable and pseudoscience, so he quickly left. -
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Education
In 1925, because he was a social worker, he was sent to the new Institute of Pedagogy by the Austrian government in attempt to reform the country’s education system. There he learned about theories of education and psychology.
At the mere age of 26 he earned his Ph. D. and in 1929 became a qualified physical science and mathematics teacher. -
The Logic of Discovery
The book that launched Dr. Karl Popper to fame and shook the scientific world was Logik der Forschung. The book was based around the demarcation that Popper was intrigued by early in life by Marx versus Einstein. It was later printed in English in 1959, The Logic of Discovery.
Popper, Karl Raimund. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. United Kingdom, Routledge, 2002. -
The Poverty of Historicism
In 1936 he released a paper, which later became published as a book called The Poverty of Historicism. According to Sir Karl Popper, historicism is a harmful approach to the social sciences. He writes of “pro-naturalistic” and anti-naturalistic” approaches to methods of physics. It can be summed up that history may repeat itself but it is scientifically impossible to know the future.
Popper, Karl Raimund. The Poverty of Historicism. United Kingdom, Routledge, 2002. -
Conjectures and Refutations
It was in 1963 that "KARL R. POPPER: Conjectures and Refutations" was published. After a lifetime of distinguishing science versus non-science he now had enough to write an entire book. A book on why falsifiability is what makes science, science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-sGqBsWv4 Popper, Karl Raimund. Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. United Kingdom, Routledge & K. Paul, 1963. -
Objective Knowledge
Another ground breaking publishing from Popper was Karl Popper: Objective Knowledge. He never stopped thinking and he never stopped questioning and here is when he even questions Aristotle. Objective Knowledge was his theory of language and human consciousness, the very thinking of fallibility. It was an evolutionary approach.
Popper, Karl R.. Objective knowledge: an evolutionary approach. United Kingdom, Clarendon Press, 1974. -
Sir Karl Popper, Death
At the age of 92, Dr. Karl Popper passed away from a combination of cancer, pneumonia, and kidney failure. However, his contributions to philosophy still live on to this day. He died having set his reputation as the most important and influential philosopher of science since Sir Francis Bacon.