The history of science, like the history of all human ideas… - Karl Popper

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The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities — perhaps the only one — in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there.

Karl Popper

Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge · May 2, 2002 Verified in 2 sources · 1 more available Sign up to see the complete provenance

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About Karl Popper

Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method in favour of empirical falsification. According to Popper, a theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can (and should) be scrutinised with decisive experiments. Popper was opposed to the classical justificationist account of knowledge, which he replaced with critical rationalism, namely "the first non-justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy".

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Native Name: Karl Raimund Popper

Alternative Names: Karl Raimund Popper Sir • Karl Raimund, Sir Popper • Sir Karl Raimund Popper

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Originators like Karl Popper:

Bertrand Russell Paul Feyerabend Leo Strauss Thomas Henry Huxley Alfred North Whitehead

Additional quotes by Karl Popper

Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now. Our fellow men have a claim to our help; no generation must be sacrificed for the sake of future generations, for the sake of an ideal of happiness that may never be realised.

Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

The belief in a political Utopia is especially dangerous. This is possibly connected with the fact that the search for a better world, like the investigation of our environment, is (if I am correct) one of the oldest and most important of all the instincts.

The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of … - Karl Popper

About Karl Popper

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Additional quotes by Karl Popper