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There is no pure, disinterested, theory-free observation.

Karl Popper

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Karl Popper
Age: 92 †
Born: 1902
Born: July 28
Died: 1994
Died: September 17
Philosopher
Philosopher Of Science
Sociologist
University Teacher
Writer
Vienna
Austria
Karl Raimund Popper Sir
Karl Raimund
Sir Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper
Free
Disinterested
Observation
Pure
Theory

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True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
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Reason like science, grows by way of mutual criticism the only possible way of planning its growth is to develop those institutions that safeguard. the freedom of thought
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Some scientists find, or so it seems, that they get their best ideas when smoking others by drinking coffee or whisky. Thus there is no reason why I should not admit that some may get their ideas by observing, or by repeating observations.
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My thesis is that what we call 'science' is differentiated from the older myths not by being something distinct from a myth, but by being accompanied by a second-order tradition-that of critically discussing the myth. ... In a certain sense, science is myth-making just as religion is.
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The survival value of intelligence is that it allows us to extinct a bad idea, before the idea extincts us.
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The defence of democracy must consist in making anti-democratic experiences too costly for those who try them much more costly than a democratic compromise
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To give a causal explanation of an event means to deduce a statement which describes it, using as premises of the deduction one or more universal laws, together with certain singular statements, the initial conditions ... We have thus two different kinds of statement, both of which are necessary ingredients of a complete causal explanation.
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no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.
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I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth
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The future is always present, as a promise, a lure and a temptation.
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Thus science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention of experiments, but with the critical discussion of myths, and of magical techniques and practices.
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It is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical quest for truth.
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[To] interpret Parmenides as a Kant before Kant ... this is exactly what we must do.
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No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.
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The fundamental thing about human languages is that they can and should be used to describe something and this something is, somehow, the world. To be constantly and almost exclusively interested in the medium - in spectacle-cleaning - is a result of a philosophical mistake.
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We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves.
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No book can ever be finished. While working on it we learn just enough to find it immature the moment we turn away from it
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While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.
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The history of science is everywhere speculative. It is a marvelous hiatory. It makes you proud to be a human being.
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