Popper and the PokerNick Aldridge

45 minutes on...

1. The contestants2. Popper: logic of science3. Wittgenstein, meaning

and metaphysics4. Why Popper had it in

for Wittgenstein5. The “fight”6. Towards a

reconciliation?

Karl Raimund Popper CH FBA FRS

• Austrian-British philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics.

• Generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century

• Born: 1902, Vienna • Died: 1994, London

Ludwig Wittgenstein• Austrian-British

philosopher and professor at Cambridge

• Widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century

• Born: 1889, Vienna • Died: 1951, Cambridge

Popper on philosophy of science•Why believe scientific theories?•What makes science scientific?

Popper’s answer:•Account of the logic of scientific method

and its advance

Early Wittgenstein & logical positivism

“In order to determine the sense of a proposition, I should have to know a very specific procedure for when to count the proposition has been verified”.

Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, p.47

Picture theory of meaning

“A propositional sign is a fact...In a

proposition a name is the representative

of an object”

(Tractatus 3.14; 3.22)

Tractatus and science

Verifiability as:- Demarcation criterion- Meaning criterion

Metaphysics becomes nonsense

Science proceeds by induction

The problem of (with) induction

The supposition that the future resembles the past, is not founded on arguments of any kind, but is derived entirely from habit.

(David Hume, 1737)

How does Popper avoid induction?•Theories are never verified: they remain

conjectures•They have the form of universal

statements: “wherever A, then B” given right initial conditions

•No number of A & B can prove; one A & not-B can falsify: an asymmetry

Falsification and demarcation

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Gravitational lensing: crucial experiment

Falsification isn’t simple/binary

•Ad hoc hypotheses

•Artificial theories & preference

Open Society and its Enemies (1945)

Popper’s Hegel-bashing

“his philosophical arguments are not to be taken seriously... A major factor in bringing about the ‘age of intellectual dishonesty’...contributed to the rise of totalitarian philosophising”

Popper’s case against Wittgenstein

The scene is set

Popper’s story

The battle – did it happen?

•Wittgenstein’s disciples

•Popper’s modest tone

Anything in common?

•W: practice and “deflationism”

•Popper on inductive practices

Conclusions, readingPopper (1934, 1959) “Logic of Scientific Discovery”,

(1946) “The Open Society and its Enemies” and (1976) “Unended Quest “

Wittgeinstein, (1922) “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” and (1953)“Philosophical Investigations”

Child, “Wittgenstein”Edmonds & Eidinow (2001) “Wittgenstein’s Poker”Ladyman (2002) “Understanding Philosophy of

Science”

Thank you!