Conjectures and Refutations by Karl Popper Week 6

Karl Popper (1902-1994) was an Austrian born philosopher known for his contributions to the philosophy of science and his political philosophy. In Conjectures and Refutations, Popper collects a sequence of lectures and articles which expound his idea that science, and knowledge in general, progresses by a sequence of conjectures, guesses which do their best to explain the body of evidence at the time, and refutations, critical tests which aim to reveal the inadequacies of our current models. Responding to the Logical Positivists who thought that scientific facts could be verified as true by successive experimentation, Popper argues that conjectures can never be established as true. Despite this view, Popper gives a passionate defense of rationality and a reminder of the need to be constantly open to correcting our mistakes. We will read the entirety of Conjectures and Refutations (Skipping some of the more technical appendices and footnotes) over the course of six weeks.

Participants should read the entire reading before attending this in person meeting. For the first week we will read p. 435-516 including the chapters 15. What is Dialectic? subsections 2-3, 16. Prediction and Prophecy in the Sciences, 17. Public Opinion and Liberal Principles, 18. Utopia and Violence, 19. The History of our Time: An Optimist's View, 20. Humanism and Reason. I will be reading from this version here and a free copy can be found here.

For questions please send me a message or post to meetup.

Best,

Brian