Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:10:55.284Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Critique of Popper's Views on Scientific Method

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Nicholas Maxwell
Nicholas Maxwell*
Affiliation:
University College, London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper considers objections to Popper's views on scientific method. It is argued that criticism of Popper's views, developed by Kuhn, Feyerabend, and Lakatos, are not too damaging, although they do require that Popper's views be modified somewhat. It is argued that a much more serious criticism is that Popper has failed to provide us with any reason for holding that the methodological rules he advocates give us a better hope of realizing the aims of science than any other set of rules. Consequently, Popper cannot adequately explain why we should value scientific theories more than other sorts of theories; which in turn means that Popper fails to solve adequately his fundamental problem, namely the problem of demarcation. It is suggested that in order to get around this difficulty we need to take the search for explanations as a fundamental aim of science.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 1972 , pp. 131 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 by The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1] Deutscher, M. “Popper's Problem of an Empirical Base.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 46 (1968): 277–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Duhem, P. The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954.10.1515/9780691233857CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[3] Feyerabend, P. “Problems of Empiricism.” Beyond the Edge of Certainty. University of Pittsburgh series in the Philosophy of Science, edited by R. Colodny, vol. 2. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1965.Google Scholar
[4] Feyerabend, P. “Problems of Empiricism II.” The Nature and Function of Scientific Theories. University of Pittsburgh series in the Philosophy of Science, edited by R. Colodny vol. 4. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970.Google Scholar
[5] Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.Google Scholar
[6] Lakatos, I. “The Changing Problem of Inductive Logic.” The Problem of Inductive Logic. Amsterdam: North Holland, 1968.10.1016/S0049-237X(08)71048-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[7] Lakatos, I., and Musgrave, A., eds. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.10.1017/CBO9781139171434CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] Popper, K. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Basic Books, 1961.Google Scholar
[9] Popper, K. “The Aim of Science.” Ratio 1 (1957): 24–35.Google Scholar
[10] Popper, K. Conjectures and Refutations. New York: Basic Books, 1962.Google Scholar
[11] Popper, K. “A Theorem on Truth Content.” Mind, Matter, and Method. Edited by Feyerabend, P. and Maxwell, G. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1966.Google Scholar
[12] Rudner, R. “An Introduction to Simplicity.” Philosophy of Science 28 (1961): 109–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13] Salmon, W. “The Justification of Inductive Rules of Inference.” The Problem of Inductive Logic. Edited by Lakatos, I. Amsterdam: North Holland, 1968.Google Scholar