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......................................................................................................Course Developed by Dr. Sambit Mallick

Views of Karl Popper

The positivistic construal of science was most systematically attacked by Karl Popper who provided an alternative image of science. His theory of scientific method has won a lot of admirers both in science and philosophy. Whereas positivists tried to work out a sophisticated version of the view called inductivism, Popper sought to resurrect its rival, namely, hypothesism. In what follows, we shall consider his views on the nature of sciences along with his attack on positivistic theory of science.

It might be pointed out that for Popper the value of the philosophical interest in scientific knowledge lies in its ability to shed light on the central question of philosophy, namely, the problem of cosmology: ‘The problem of understanding the world including ourselves and our knowledge of the world as part of the world'¹ . In studying Popper's contribution to our understanding of science one must bear in mind his general philosophical concerns which alone set in motion, guide and lend deep significance to his painstaking work on the nature of science.

The philosophical inquiry into the nature of scientific method, according to Popper, must confine itself to the manner in which scientific theories are evaluated and accepted or rejected. Popper refuses to consider as legitimate the inquiry into the way in which these theories are arrived at. Therefore, according to Popper, philosophy of science must first confine itself to the context of justification and refuse to say that anything about the context of discovery. Popper considers the creative process in and through which scientific ideas are generated to be unamendable to any rational explanation. Secondly, an adequate philosophy of science, according to Popper, must provide a criterion of demarcation between science and non-science. Like positivists, Popper is convinced of the uniqueness and supremacy of science in the overall scheme of our activities aimed at knowledge acquisition.