What was it like for anyone, whether they were of an oppressed class or not, to live through the rise of national socialism (aka Nazism) during the 1920s and 1930s? Many people, due to the extreme poverty and German degradation brought on by Allied decision-making after World War I, were happy to see the promise of Germany's return to prominence. However, there were others, many intellectuals included, who believed that falling into fascism was dangerous and counterproductive.
One of these intellectuals, of Jewish heritage, was Karl Popper (1902-1994). He trained as an elementary school teacher and then as a psychologist, but his primary contributions were to the field of general science. As the Nazis were coming to power, the Austrian-born Karl Popper tried to gain a position in academia prominent enough that his ancestry would not matter. However, because he opposed the rise of fascism and worked for democracy in his country, he was forced to leave Austria for England, where he did the majority of his work.
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Popper chose not to confine himself to the field of psychology because he felt it was too restrictive. His ideas were for the scientific community at large, society, and the political realm. He delved into all three after he began questioning the popular ideas of his time.
Scientific inquiry was based on the scientific method then as it is today. The researcher starts with a question, conducts research to determine a more exact question, forms a hypothesis, and then experiments (using empirical, or observational, methods) to determine a conclusion. Unfortunately, most of these conclusions are theories rather than facts. Popper realized that it was difficult to determine facts in the social sciences, but he also realized that a number of theories could be disproven if research were conducted differently.
In order to conduct research correctly, Popper believed that the scientist had to be critical. Empiricism, or observation, is the primary means social scientists use in research. They set conditions for a test; then they observe what happens. However, observation is passive. There has to be some thought applied to truly understand what is being observed. Of course, this always happens to some extent, but scientists tend to believe the evidence they see; they are rarely completely critical.
Critical rationality is the belief that all answers have to be examined with an eye toward their failure. The classic example is making a statement such as 'All swans are white,' which is disproven by a black swan. Popper didn't believe that theories were the end of research; they were the beginning. The process, then, is:
Popper believed that all evidence had to go through rounds of critical testing to make sure that theories were as correct as they could possibly be. This process has also been called 'trial and error,' which is a perfect description of the process Popper advocated.
Popper didn't believe in the perfect or in the possibility that science would ever get everything right. However, he did believe that science advanced, but that the advancement was by fits and starts.
There are very few eureka moments during which a scientist, lying in his bathtub, discovers the means to determine the volume of an irregularly-shaped object. Most scientific advancement is slow and requires that researchers go backward one step for every two steps they advance. Popper knew this and used critical rationality as a means to focus this quality of scientific advancement.
By conducting further experiments to try to find the flaws in a theory, Popper believed that science was always moving forward and seeking the truth. That was the crux of his line of thought.
Karl Popper was trained as a psychologist, but he questioned how science was researched and how theories were received. It seemed to him that scientists would ask questions, do research, and create a theory without determining if that theory had general relativity. He sought to create a system by which science was more critical of itself and its discoveries. He called this theory critical rationality. He said that people should go back to the theory and try to prove it false. In this way, the scientist could either refine the theory or disregard it entirely.
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Western Civilization 1648 to the Present: Help and Review15 chapters | 162 lessons
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