Karl Poppers Philosophy

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Karl Poppers Philosophy

• Critical Rationalism
• And
• Emancipation through Knowledge

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Karl Raymond Popper1902-1996

• Birth Place Vienna (Austria)
• Career Cabinetmaker, Health care assistance,
  School Master, Philosophy Professor
• Major Publications Logic of Scientific Discovery
  (1932/1968) Open Society and its Enemies (1945)
  Poverty of Historicism (1935/1957) Conjecture
  and Refutations (1963) )objective Knowledge
  (1970) Realism and the Aim of Science (1985)
  Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem (1994)The
  Myth of the Framework (1994) In Search of Better
  World (1995 ) The Lesson o this Century (2000)
  All Life is Problem-solving (2001).

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Critical RationalismThe Main Aspects of a
Rational Way of Life -1

• The quest for knowledge and truth, for
  emancipation through knowledge, and spiritual
  freedom

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Critical RationalismThe Main Aspects of a
Rational Way of Life -2

• The critical attitude that -recognizing that any
  particular expression of the truth is fallible,
  limited, not final- seeks undogmatically to
  subject all attitudes, ideas, institutions,
  traditions, so-called knowledge and so-called
  freedom, to critical examination and appraisal
  Rationalists are those people who are ready to
  challenge and to criticize everything, including
  their own tradition.

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Critical RationalismThe Main Aspects of a
Rational Way of Life -3

• Willingness to learn from others We must
  recognize everybody with whom we communicate as a
  potential source of argument and of reasonable
  information and take the attitude that I may be
  wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we
  may get nearer to the truth.

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A bit of Historical Intellectual Background

• Psychoanalysis (Freud), Individual Psychology
  (Adler)
• Marxism
• Positivism (Mach) Logical Positivism
• And the significance of Confirming Evidence

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Einsteins Crucial Experiment
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Two Main Problems of Epistemology

• Problem of Demarcation
• Problem of Induction

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Demarcation and Induction(once again)

• Logical Positivists Response
• Demarcation Principle of Verifiability
• Induction No Problem
• Poppers Response
• Demarcation Principle of Falsifiability
• Induction There is no such a thing as inductive
  reasoning

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All Life Is Problem-Solving
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All Knowledge is Conjectural

• Knowledge vs. Scepticism
• Knowledge Justified True Belief
• Knowledge Reliable True Belief
• Knowledge, the Progress of Knowledge, and
  rejection of scepticism
• Corroboration in place of confirmation

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Main Aspects of the Popperian System of Thought
(1)

• In The Field of Metaphysics
• Realism
• Non-Humean causality
• Propensities and Tendencies
• Conjectural Essentialism
• Rejection of determinism
• Theory of three worlds

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Theory of Three worlds (1)as a link between
metaphysics and epistemology
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Theory of Three worlds (2)
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Main Aspects of the Popperian System of Thought
(2)

• In the Field of Epistemology
• Objective Knowledge (Knowledge without a knowing
  subject)
• Correspondence theory of Truth
• Verisimilitude (Truth as the final goal of
  investigations)
• Epistemic Pluralism
• Critical Rationalism
• Evolutionary Epistemology
• Rejection of relativism, dogmatism,
  justificationism, foundationalism, and scepticism
• Intellectual Honesty

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Main Aspects of the Popperian System of Thought
(3)

• In the Field of Methodology
• Falisificationism
• Conjectures and Refutations
• Criticism as a method (empirical and discursive)

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Main Aspects of the Popperian System of Thought
(4)

• In the Field of Political and Social Sciences
• Negative utilitarianism
• Piecemeal social engineering and anti-utopianism
• Moral responsibility of individuals
• Freedom and social justice
• Liberal democracy
• Open society Rejection of despotism,
  totalitarianism, and historicism

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What Is Situational Logic?-1

• R G Collingwood I his book The Idea of History
  stated that historical knowledge, or historical
  understanding, consists in the re-enactment by
  the historian of past experience.
• Suppose a historian is reading the Theodosian
  Code, and has before him a certain edict of an
  emperor. Merely reading the words and being able
  to translate them does not amount to knowing
  their historical significance. In order to do
  that he must envisage the situation with which
  the emperor was trying to deal, and he must
  envisage it as that emperor envisaged it. Then he
  must see for himself, just as if the emperors
  situation were his own, how such a situation
  might be dealt with he must see the possible
  alternatives, and the reasons for choosing one
  rather than another and thus he must go through
  the process which the emperor went through in
  deciding on this particular course. Thus he is
  re-enacting in his own mind the experience of the
  emperor and only in so far as he does this has
  he any historical knowledge, as distinct from a
  merely philological knowledge, of the meaning of
  the edict.
• Or again, suppose he is reading a passage of an
  ancient philosopher. Once more, he must know the
  language in a philological sense and be able to
  construe but by doing that he has not yet
  understood the passage as an historian of
  philosophy must understand it. In order to do
  that, he must see what the philosophical problem
  was, of which his author is here stating his
  solution. He must think that problem out for
  himself, see what possible solutions of it might
  be offered, and see why this particular
  philosopher chose that solution instead of
  another. This means re-thinking for himself the
  thought of his author and nothing short of that
  will make him the historian of that authors
  philosophy. (p.283)

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What Is Situational Logic?-2

• The method of situational logic differs from the
  method of re-enactment or empathy in the
  following ways
• It is based on objective situational and
  institutional analysis and not subjective act of
  empathy.
• It works by reconstructing the social situation
  in which the actor(s)/ agent(s) act, treating
  their aims not as psychological facts, but as
  elements of the objective social situation.
• The reconstructed situation is open to scrutiny
  and criticism and therefore further refinement.

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What Is Situational Logic?-3

• Situations (Social, Economic, Moral, Political,
  Historical , ) Consist of
• Physical environments and entities
• Social Institutions
• Other actors/agents

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What Is Situational Logic?- 4

• The following are assigned to each actor in a
  given situation
• A number of aims and objectives
• A certain amount of background knowledge
• A principle of rationality.

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What Is Situational Logic?- 5

• Rationality vs. the Principle of Rationality
  (Charity)
• Rationality
• Avoidance of contradictions in thought and in
  action
• Aim-oriented behaviour Problem-solving attitude
• Criticism as a method
• Principle of Rationality (Charity)
• What to do with seemingly irrational actions?
  (for example Driver in the wrong side of the
  highway)

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What Is Situational Logic?-6

• Situations (once again) how do we
  determine/define/individuate situations?
• Reality vs. Facts (physical and social)
• Situations actual vs. counterfactual

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Social Sciences vs. Physical Sciences

• Are There No Laws in Social Sciences?
• Experiments in the Social and Physical sciences
• The Role of Social Actors/Agents in the Social
  Sciences
• Holism and Essentialism in the Social Sciences
• Trends, Processes and Large-Scale Predictions
• Explanation vs. Understanding
• Social Sciences and Technology
• Objectivity in the Social Sciences