Karl Popper Quotes about Knowledge

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It is part of my thesis that all our knowledge grows only through the correcting of our mistakes.

It is part of my thesis that all our knowledge grows only through the correcting of our mistakes.

Karl Popper

Truth, Mistake, Knowledge

Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.15, Routledge

It is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical quest for truth.

Karl Popper

Knowledge, Science, Men

The Logic of Scientific Discovery Ch. 10

Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.

Karl Popper

Learning, Ignorance, Knowledge

Lecture to British Academy, 20 Jan. 1960, in Proceedings of the British Academy (1960) vol. 46, p. 69

The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance

Karl Popper

Ignorance, Knowledge, World

Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.38, Routledge

I think that we shall have to get accustomed to the idea that we must not look upon science as a 'body of knowledge,' but rather as a system of hypotheses; that is to say, as a system of guesses or anticipations which in principle cannot be justified, but with which we work as long as they stand up to tests, and of which we are never justified in saying that we know they are 'true' or 'more or less certain' or even 'probable.'

Karl Popper

Knowledge, Science, Thinking

The Logic of Scientific Discovery (p. 317)

The growth of our knowledge is the result of a process closely resembling what Darwin called 'natural selection'; that is, the natural selection of hypotheses: our knowledge consists, at every moment, of those hypotheses which have shown their (comparative) fitness by surviving so far in their struggle for existence, a competitive struggle which eliminates those hypotheses which are unfit.

Karl Popper

Struggle, Knowledge, Science

It is often asserted that discussion is only possible between people who have a common language and accept common basic assumptions. I think that this is a mistake. All that is needed is a readiness to learn from one's partner in the discussion, which includes a genuine wish to understand what he intends to say. If this readiness is there, the discussion wrighteous stupidityill be the more fruitful the more the partner's backgrounds differ.

Karl Popper

Mistake, Learning, Knowledge

Karl Popper (2012). “In Search of a Better World: Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years”, p.158, Routledge