Kuhn–Popper debate
Popper introduced the mechanism of conjectures and refutations, which works as follows: you formulate a (bold) conjecture and you start looking for the observation that would prove you wrong. This is the alternative to our search for confirmatory instances. If you think the task is easy, you will be disappointed—few humans have a natural ability to
... See moreNassim Nicholas Taleb • The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Incerto Book 2)
Learning to think is all about what another 20th-century philosopher, Karl Popper, came later to call ‘conjectures and refutations’. Everyday problem solving, suggested Dewey (and Popper), comprises a process a bit like going into a coconut shy: you put ideas up and you do your best to knock them down again; you shouldn’t just accept the first idea
... See moreGary Thomas • Education: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
The role of metaphor and narrative, as opposed to new theories or experiments, is too little recognised in discussions of the historian of science Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shifts, supposed (and contested) moments of dramatic change in science. All scientists know how to go about scrutinising a theory: you use it to formulate some testable hypothesis,... See more
Philip Ball • We need new metaphors that put life at the centre of biology | Aeon Essays
It is not that many philosophers are inductivists, or have much disagreement with Popper’s description and prescription of scientific method, or believe that scientific theories are actually unsound because of their conjectural status. It is that they do not accept Popper’s explanation of how it all works.