Karl Popper Biography
Vienna July 1902 - 1994
Popper attacks the static reality of forms as designed by Plato but designs a world of reason that is rigid in a stealthier way


office wizard, critical rationalism Often called by 'rationalists' the greatest philosopher of science of the 20th century. Popper trusts in the continuity of the mind-world rational science He was born in 1902 and raised with a great appreciation of music. He entered the University of Vienna early, for a time flirted with Marxism (but this wizard of 'rationalism' found dogma other as his own distasteful), in 1928 received a Ph.D. in philosophy, and in 1929 became accredited to teach mathematics and physics.
Henk Tuten: Karl Popper might be seen as a kind of 'office wizard'. He enjoyed 'rational' theory, but probably never visited countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Morocco, China, Thailand etc.

Karl Popper was son in an upper-middleclass Jewish family in Vienna. In 1900 the family of his father Simon converted to Protestantism (Lutheranism). Vienna had the highest conversion rate from Jewish to Lutheranism of all European cities. Lutheranism was the driving force behind anti-semitism, so this was a 'rational' 'if you can't beat them join them'-decision. Simon Popper was a prominent lawyer at an office that did business with the notably anti-semitic mayor Karl Lueger.
Young Hitler developed his hatred for Jews in the slums of Vienna during that period. In that period in time many East European Jews came to Vienna with habits that were very strange to the original population. Vienna was a hotspot in Europe with french influence, german influence, east-european influence. With an austrian emperor who severely feared being degraded by the german emperor. An extremely dangerous mix that was nearing boiling point. Conversion to Lutheranism was popular among middle class Jewish families in Vienna, living in very fiendish surroundings.
Karl Popper got 'drugged' by the new 'abstract thinking' in Vienna, introduced by the English, and popular in upper-class Lutheran circles. In 1814 after the defeat of Napoleon, this Austrian capital in leading circles started 'daydreaming'. The last great monarchies in Europe had joined forces against France, resulting in total stagnation.
From then on in Vienna ruled the weird 'rational' belief (coming from Anglican England and Immanuel Kant's homecountry Lutheran Prussia) that abstract dreaming had more value than physical work. This 'revolutionary' illusion caused bureaucracy, as described in this Franz Kafka quote: Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy. And made the same young Kafka (1883-1924) in total amazement write "Die Verwandlung" (the Metamorphosis). It made Popper decide for a metamorphosis from craftsman to student 'philosophy' (to become wizard in 'rational' fantasizing).
(Such mind-body split arguing in the Israel-Palestine conflict makes Jews believe to have more 'soul' than Muslims).

popper-3-worlds
Popper's conceptual scheme of reality: 3 interacting worlds + falsification
World 1: the world of physical objects and events, including biological entities
World 2: the world of mental objects and events (metaphysics: Poppers mathematical structure behind the physical world)
World 3: the world of the subjective products of the human mind (ideas; Poppers version of mind-body split)
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1928 Ph. D. in philosophy
Popper became a social and political philosopher
After WWII he emigrated to from Austria to New Zealand where he taught at Canterbury University College of Christchurch.

1946-1960 Professor of logic and then of methodology at the London School of Economics (students amongst others Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend). Though he made dangerous missteps in logic, and consequently should have stayed far from methodology
His influence can be seen in the mess that Imre Lakatos made of logic (sorry), while imitating Thomas Kuhn.

1994, 17th September: Death of Karl Popper

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Paradigm Shift
Return to Common Sense
back to overview philosophy 20th century

karl popper scientifical philosophy .
. popper kuhn debate

most pictures on the websites of Henk Tuten
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