Karl Popper?

[Che]

Anyone familiar with the ideas of Karl Popper? is he liberty-friendly?

 

[Sola_Fide]

I don't know about his politics, but as a philosopher of science he was one of the best. As a rationalist, he showed how science could never yield truth. He had amazing insight:

First although in science we do our best to find the truth, we are conscious of the fact that we can never be sure whether we have got it... we know that our scientific theories always remain hypotheses... in science there is no "knowledge" in the sense in which Plato and Aristotle understood the word, in the sense which implies finality; in science, we never have sufficient reason for the belief that we have attained the truth.

Einstein declared that his theory was false: he said that it would be a better approximation to the truth than Newton's, but he gave reasons why he would not, even if all predictions came out right, regard it as a true theory.... Our attempts to see and to find the truth are not final, but open to improvement...our knowledge, our doctrine is conjectural;... it consist of guesses, of hypotheses rather than of final and certain truths.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

I don't know about his politics, but as a philosopher of science he was one of the best. As a rationalist, he showed how science could never yield truth. He had amazing insight:

+1

 

[Che]

can we apply his scientific approach to political ideologies?

 

[Conza88]

Anyone familiar with the ideas of Karl Popper? is he liberty-friendly?

Yes, a variant of empiricism (positivism). No, not liberty friendly imo. You can get "libertarian" conclusions, but the methodology behind it is superficial & wrong.

His methodological monism fails. I'd suggest a reading of this.

His falsification theory doesn't past muster in terms of praxeology and the a priori science of human action.