Karl Popper’s Falsificationism
An overview of Popper’s falsificationist theory
Introduction to Karl Popper
An Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator, Sir Karl Raimund Popper is considered one of the most influential 20th century philosophers of science. He was influenced by Albert Einstein, Rene Descartes and Immanuel Kant, and he influenced Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend.
Contributions: The topics that he significantly contributed to are induction and the scientific method. He introduced the criterion of falsifiability. The Logic of Scientific Discovery is his most notable work.
The Idea of Falsificationism
Falsificationism was Karl Popper’s response to the problem of demarcation.
The Development of Falsification
Induction was the commonly accepted solution to the problem of demarcation before Hume pointed how it was not as sound as it was previously assumed to be. Therefore, Popper introduced falsifiability as the new solution. He claimed that it was the possibility of being refuted that distinguished a scientific theory from a non-scientific one. Refutable scientific theories are truly risky because the predictions that they make are ones that forbid (and hence, do not allow just any explanation to fit). Therefore, the only genuine test of a theory is the one attempting to falsify it.
Here, he gives the example of astrology and astronomy. The former is a pseudoscience because it can fit just about any evidence as falling right in line with its proposed thesis, whereas the latter makes prohibitive statements that can be refuted empirically, making these claims a truly risky bet.
The more predictive the risks, the more falsifiable the theory, and the more scientific it is.
Therefore, falsification can be defined as the act of attempting to refute a statement or a theory. It is an attempt to demonstrate its falsity.
The Three Stages of Falsification
The three stages of falsification are as follows:
- Deriving befitting logical consequences of the constructed hypothesis
- Applying relevant experiences in forms of observation, experimentation and measurement
- Collating the results from 2) with the hypothesis from 1), and discarding the latter is anomalies are discovered
“Using observational data can not prove the truth of the theory or the probability that the theory is true. With the help of observations can only demonstrate its falsity” — Popper
Popper cautioned us against viewing falsification as a negative thing and instead promoted a positive conception of it as it aids in discarding the untruth and hence in stepping closer to the truth.
Difference between Falsification and Falsifiability
Falsifiability refers to the inherent testability of a theory or a scientific hypothesis, i.e., it is about the logical possibility of a theory being falsified. On the other hand, Falsification involves a way of demarcating science from pseudo-science, or non-science. The purpose of Falsificationism is to make clearer the nature of knowledge so that we come closer to obtaining the truth. (As per Popper, we can never know anything for certain, but only in degrees of certainty/probability)
Food for Thought — Was Popper a Pseudo Anti-Inductivist?
As per Falsificationists, confirmation plays a vital role in science. The more the instances of a theory not being refuted, the closer it is to being confirmed, believed Popper. But this seems to be inconsistent with his anti-inductivist position, as it implies that creditability of a theory is directly proportionate with the amount of evidence that build up in or against its favor — making evidence count, like it does in the case of induction.
Read Karl Popper on Demarcation and Induction if you wish to know more about this topic.
