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Humble Beginnings and Interest in Education
Karl Popper was born on the 28th of July 1902 in Vienna, Austria. His father was a bibliophile and was estimated to have owned 12,000 to 14,000 volumes of books. Popper took an interest in reading and developed a particular fondness for philosophy and social and political issues. Popper even described his childhood as "decidedly bookish." -
Attraction to Marxism and subsequent abandonment
Popper began his studies at the University of Vienna in 1918. While there, he attended lectures about physics, mathematics, and his love child, philosophy. In 1919 the young and impressionable Popper idolized the idea of Marxism and subsequently joined the social democratic workers' party of Austria. He later denounced Marxism claiming it to be "pseudo-scientific" and later became a figurehead for social liberalization until his death in 1994. -
Zur Methodenfrage der Denkpsychologie (On the problem of Method in the psychology of thinking)
Popper continued his studies in Vienna and used this time to attend lectures from the likes of Einstein to Freud. Popper's studies focused on theoretical physics and mathematics. Popper eventually earned his Ph.D. in 1928 for Philosophy. His dissertation focused on the psychology of thought and discovery. It was this thesis that laid the framework for his future publications. (Shea B. "Karl Popper: Philosophy of science") retrieved from: https://www.iep.utm.edu/pop-sci/ -
The Logic of Scientific Discovery
In 1935 Popper published his first book, "The Logic of Scientific Discovery." This was originally posted under a different title and was not published in English until 1959. In this book, Popper dissected the scientific method and coined the term falsifiability. This book was a colossal achievement and significantly paved the way for the philosophy of science. This link will provide an excellent understanding of how important this was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X8Xfl0JdTQ -
Subsequent Endeavors
In 1946 Popper took up a teaching position at the London school of economics. He gave lectures on philosophy, quantum mechanics, entropy, and evolution. During his tenure here he published two major works, “The Propensity Interpretation of Probability” (1959) and "Conjectures and Refutations" (1963). Popper had paved a way to set a definition on what exactly constituted as science. "Falsification" was being taught all over academia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-sGqBsWv4 -
Contributions to the Philosophy of Science
Popper retired from academia in 1969 although he continued to publish work until his death in 1994. He has widely been considered to be the best philosopher of science during the 20th century. He set the standards for falsification as well as the criteria for demarcation. He had a vast amount of knowledge and progressed both physics and psychoanalysis. Although he has been met with some criticism there is no denying his advances in Philosophy, Science, Education and humanitarianism.
