Question

What is conjecture and refutation according to karl popper?

Answer 1

In this selection, Popper gives a brief account of how he believes scientific theories are properly demarcated from other types of theories. He notes that a common way to distinguish science from other disciplines is by attending to the methodology that science employs. Reliance an empirical observation, it is sometimes suggested, is the mark of a science; any discipline that justifies its claim to knowledge by way of observation and experimentation counts as a science, and anything that fails to do these things is disqualified as a science. Popper, though, thinks that this popular understanding of science is inaccurate. He points to the fact that many disciplines rely on what we would have to call observation, but that we legitimately balk at calling them sciences. One such example is astrology; that discipline relies on a very extensive system of observations, but almost no one would consider it a science.