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Birth
Karl Popper was born in Vienna, Austria. He was the youngest of three. He had two older sisters Dora and Annie. -
Einstein's influence
After learning about Albert Einstein's work, Popper's life was drastically changed. Popper was notably affected by Einstein's willingness to abandon his own theory of relativity if it failed different crucial tests. Luckily, Arthur Eddington led an expedition to observe an eclipse of the sun, which provided important support for Einstein's theory. I believed this ultimately shaped Popper's Falsification Principle. -
Qualified to teach
Popper obtained a primary school teaching diploma. -
Thesis
Popper was granted a Ph.D. for a thesis entitled "On the Problem of Method in the Psychology of Thinking." -
Secondary school
Pooper became qualified to teach mathematics and physics in secondary school after obtaining his PhD. -
Marriage
Popper met his wife Josefine Anna Henninger in 1925 at the Institute of Education in Vienna. They married in 1930. -
Exposing flaws
After publishing a book titled, Logik der Forschung, Popper's showed how scientific theories could never be undoubtedly verified. The philosophy Popper challenged in this book is logical positivism. It is obtained by added more data and more opinions, trying like mad to support a theory. In publishing this book, it exposed a key element to how we verified scientific theories. Popper demonstrated that theories are tested by falsification, not verification. -
Swans
The book Logik der Forschung was translated into English entitled The Logic of Discovery. Popper's view of science was distinguishing science from pseudoscience by the concept of falsification. An example of this would be swan sighting No matter how many sightings of white swans there are, it does not prove the theory that all swans are white because one black swan can refute that. -
Hypothetico-deductive method
According to Popper, the most important thing about theory has to be falsifiable. In order for a theory to be scientific, it as to be falsifiable. He called this the Hypothetico-deductive method. We now know this as the modern scientific method. -
Knighted
In 1965 Popper was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, becoming Sir Karl Raimund Popper. -
Retired
At age 67, Popper retired from his professorship but remained active in different academic circles. -
Death
Karl Popper died of cancer in Kenley, United Kingdom, at the age of 92. He was buried next to his wife, Josephine, in Vienna’s Lainzer Friedhof Cemetery. -
Resouces
“Karl Popper.” Biography, Facts and Pictures, 15 Aug. 2018, www.famousscientists.org/karl-popper.
Thornton, Stephen, "Karl Popper", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/popper/.
