Karl Popper, “The Logic of Scientific Discovery” is a seminal work in the modern philosophy of science. It proposes to solve the problem of induction, and his proposal of falsifiability is, to my knowledge, the most popular philosophical framework for modern scientific practice. I’d be interested in what the above commenter has to say about Popper, though, as I am not well-read outside of his work, as my focus is on the history of science.
I’m not sure recommending Popper to someone who has never studied philosophy, and who is reading on their own, is a good idea … I would probably start with a small intro to philosophy book like Blackburn’s Think and then try to find lectures or resources that help teach Popper, rather than just diving into source material with no guidance.
Popper is important, but I don’t think he is commonly seen to have solved the problem of induction … he made an attempt, but that’s a different story.
sorry, I conflated what you said about falsifiability being the most popular framework with thinking he did solve the problem of induction, lol - I had just woken up when I responded to you, my apologies 😅
Popper is great, also recommend Hilary Putnam’s “The ‘Corroboration’ of Theories” on Popper. I admittedly adore Putnam, but it’s a nice overview of Popper’s view of induction and its problems.
Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) and his idea of paradigm shifts is also worth mentioning here, and Kuhn comes up in Putnam’s chapter, too.
Karl Popper, “The Logic of Scientific Discovery” is a seminal work in the modern philosophy of science. It proposes to solve the problem of induction, and his proposal of falsifiability is, to my knowledge, the most popular philosophical framework for modern scientific practice. I’d be interested in what the above commenter has to say about Popper, though, as I am not well-read outside of his work, as my focus is on the history of science.
I’m not sure recommending Popper to someone who has never studied philosophy, and who is reading on their own, is a good idea … I would probably start with a small intro to philosophy book like Blackburn’s Think and then try to find lectures or resources that help teach Popper, rather than just diving into source material with no guidance.
Popper is important, but I don’t think he is commonly seen to have solved the problem of induction … he made an attempt, but that’s a different story.
Excellent points! And yes, that’s why I said he proposed that he solved the problem of induction.
sorry, I conflated what you said about falsifiability being the most popular framework with thinking he did solve the problem of induction, lol - I had just woken up when I responded to you, my apologies 😅
Popper is great, also recommend Hilary Putnam’s “The ‘Corroboration’ of Theories” on Popper. I admittedly adore Putnam, but it’s a nice overview of Popper’s view of induction and its problems.
Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) and his idea of paradigm shifts is also worth mentioning here, and Kuhn comes up in Putnam’s chapter, too.