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Popper and the Poker. Nick Aldridge. 45 minutes on. The contestants Popper: logic of science Wittgenstein, meaning and metaphysics Why Popper had it in for Wittgenstein The “fight” Towards a reconciliation?. Karl Raimund Popper CH FBA FRS. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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45 minutes on...
1. The contestants2. Popper: logic of science3. Wittgenstein, meaning
and metaphysics4. Why Popper had it in
for Wittgenstein5. The “fight”6. Towards a
reconciliation?
Karl Raimund Popper CH FBA FRS
• Austrian-British philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics.
• Generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century
• Born: 1902, Vienna • Died: 1994, London
Ludwig Wittgenstein• Austrian-British
philosopher and professor at Cambridge
• Widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century
• Born: 1889, Vienna • Died: 1951, Cambridge
Popper on philosophy of science•Why believe scientific theories?•What makes science scientific?
Popper’s answer:•Account of the logic of scientific method
and its advance
Early Wittgenstein & logical positivism
“In order to determine the sense of a proposition, I should have to know a very specific procedure for when to count the proposition has been verified”.
Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, p.47
Picture theory of meaning
“A propositional sign is a fact...In a
proposition a name is the representative
of an object”
(Tractatus 3.14; 3.22)
Tractatus and science
Verifiability as:- Demarcation criterion- Meaning criterion
Metaphysics becomes nonsense
Science proceeds by induction
The problem of (with) induction
The supposition that the future resembles the past, is not founded on arguments of any kind, but is derived entirely from habit.
(David Hume, 1737)
How does Popper avoid induction?•Theories are never verified: they remain
conjectures•They have the form of universal
statements: “wherever A, then B” given right initial conditions
•No number of A & B can prove; one A & not-B can falsify: an asymmetry
Falsification and demarcation
GeminiYou may be feeling a bit reserved today…Promising new projects may present themselves.
Popper’s Hegel-bashing
“his philosophical arguments are not to be taken seriously... A major factor in bringing about the ‘age of intellectual dishonesty’...contributed to the rise of totalitarian philosophising”
Conclusions, readingPopper (1934, 1959) “Logic of Scientific Discovery”,
(1946) “The Open Society and its Enemies” and (1976) “Unended Quest “
Wittgeinstein, (1922) “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” and (1953)“Philosophical Investigations”
Child, “Wittgenstein”Edmonds & Eidinow (2001) “Wittgenstein’s Poker”Ladyman (2002) “Understanding Philosophy of
Science”