Karl Popper

Karl Raimund Popper, born 28 July 1902 and died 17 September 1994, was an Austrian-British philosopher and one of the most important philosophers of science in the twentieth century. He was born in Vienna, studied at the University of Vienna, and later taught philosophy, logic, and scientific method at the London School of Economics.

Popper's main fame rests on the theory of 'falsifiability'. He believed that a theory is scientific only when one can conceive of conditions that, if they occurred, would refute the theory. Simply put, science advances through testing, error, criticism, and the possibility of correction, not through the mere accumulation of confirmations. The London School of Economics also describes Popper as one of the most prominent philosophers of science of the twentieth century and considers falsifiability his famous answer to the problem of demarcating science from non-science.

In social philosophy, Popper is also known for the concept of the 'open society'; a society in which institutions, policies, and beliefs are always subject to public criticism and rational revision. He opposed any form of historical certainty and prophecy about the inevitable fate of societies, and criticized this view in his book 'The Poverty of Historicism'.

Popper's cultural significance lies in his defense of critical rationalism. In his view, the progress of knowledge and society is made possible through questioning, criticism, error correction, and the avoidance of dogmatism. His works have had a wide-ranging influence on both the philosophy of science and political and social thought; especially 'The Logic of Scientific Discovery' and 'The Open Society and Its Enemies', which are considered among the classic works of the twentieth century.