The nineteenth century turned out to be a time when there was a vivid development of the philosophy of positivism. In the early 20th century, in the early 1900s, the so-called Vienna Circle of Scientists was formed, who considered the exact sciences to be ideal, they were critical of the humanities, although many of them were humanities themselves. Among the members of the Vienna Circle, Karl Popper was especially significant. His discoveries were very important. Popper's criterion is used not only in science, but also in judicial practice.
Is the professor angry?
Herr Popper was a teacher of a very cool temper. He could expel the student from the lecture for the slightest disagreement or for a stupid question. Nevertheless, there were always a lot of people who wanted to listen to him. Popper was extremely critical of philosophy, he encouraged students to think independently, but it was risky to express his opinion at his lecture. Especially if some student asked whether the principle of refutation can be applied to the principle of refutability. It was enough to pronounce this simple tautological expression so that the teacher’s eyes were filled with blood. What is Popper's principle?
Science has properties
In order to consider a statement, hypothesis or theory scientific, it is necessary that in principle it can be refuted. Popper's criterion says that rebuttability is an inseparable property of scientific knowledge. If something cannot be refuted, then it cannot be proved. Here is the requirement for the wording to be sufficiently clear, otherwise the phrase, hypothesis or theory will lose refutation. If it is impossible to refute the knowledge in question, then those who support it are simply engaged in pseudoscience.
Falsity not proven
Popper's criterion says that knowledge that is not refutable will not necessarily be false. Many metaphysical principles, for example, are not false, they are simply unscientific - that is, their reliability cannot be proved. We simply do not know, and in principle we cannot. What knowledge does Popper's criterion automatically make pseudoscience?
Especially suspicious in this respect are the so-called esoteric knowledge. They are usually formulated extremely broadly, if desired, each person can try to find confirmation. Most of the esoteric principles cannot be verified, therefore knowledge of this kind should be considered simply a product of human idleness, created for leisure. But don't take them too seriously.
Arkansas
As mentioned, Popper's criterion was also applied in judicial practice. As a result of the case of teaching creationism at school, it was proved that this teaching cannot be considered within the framework of the natural sciences, but should take a place in the course of religion, since knowledge of this kind is unprovable and incontrovertible. After this incident in 1982, it was decided to use this principle in the future if the issue of scientific or unscientific nature is resolved, although lawsuits of this kind are a rarity even among Americans who like to sue.
So, Karl Popper laid the foundations of a modern understanding of science. It was he who was able to formulate what seems obvious to a person of our time. However, not so obvious, if you recall the popularity of esotericism ...