The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994) was a scientific, social, and political philosopher. Popper’s ideas about the scientific method formed the basis for contemporary scientific practice. The philosopher was born in an upper middle-class family in Vienna; his parents were Jewish but practiced the Lutheran faith. His father was an avid reader with a library of over 12,000 books, which he bequeathed to his son. Popper embraced his father’s love for learning. Throughout his life, he pursued a wide variety of subjects and careers, keenly engaged and passionate about each endeavor. He attended the University of Vienna as a guest student at the age of 16 and joined the Association of Socialist School Students. Popper identified as a Marxist until eight of his friends were killed in a street demonstration; from that point on, Popper embraced social liberalism. He tried cabinetmaking and opened an after-school club for children. His curiosity was a driving force that then turned his attention toward philosophy.

In 1925, he studied philosophy and psychology and met his future wife Josefine Anna Henninger. He earned a doctorate in psychology in 1928 and taught mathematics and physics. As the socio-political landscape of Europe began to buckle under the weight of Nazism, Popper hurried to finish an academic work that would secure him a position at a university in a safe country.