The Logic of Scientific Discovery

work by Popper

Also known as: “Logik der Forschung”

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June 30, 2026

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In The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Sir Karl Popper proposed the criterion of falsifiability as a standard for evaluating scientific theories. Popper argued that a theory is genuinely scientific only if it can be proven false in principle. He rejected the traditional inductive method, where theories are verified by repeated observations. Instead, Popper advocated for a deductive approach where scientists actively seek evidence that could disprove their hypotheses. Theories are corroborated when they withstand attempts at falsification. Popper contended that disciplines like astrology, metaphysics, Marxism, and psychoanalysis are not empirical sciences because their claims cannot be falsified.12

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positivism
The verifiability criterion of meaning and its offshoots
…his Logik der Forschung (1935; The Logic of Scientific Discovery), insisted that the meaning criterion should be abandoned and replaced by a criterion of demarcation between empirical (scientific) and transempirical (nonscientific, metaphysical) questions and answers—a criterion that, according to Popper, is to be testability, or, in his own version, falsifiability—i.e.,…
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…his Logik der Forschung (1935; The Logic of Scientific Discovery), insisted that the meaning criterion should be abandoned and replaced by a criterion of demarcation between empirical (scientific) and transempirical (nonscientific, metaphysical) questions and answers—a criterion that, according to Popper, is to be testability, or, in his own version, falsifiability—i.e.,…
Read More

ideology
Ideology and terror
In Logik der Forschung (1934; The Logic of Scientific Discovery), Popper suggested that the true method of science was not one of observation, hypothesis, and confirmation but one of conjecture and experiment, in which the concept of falsification played a crucial role. By this concept he meant that in science…
Read More
In Logik der Forschung (1934; The Logic of Scientific Discovery), Popper suggested that the true method of science was not one of observation, hypothesis, and confirmation but one of conjecture and experiment, in which the concept of falsification played a crucial role. By this concept he meant that in science…
Read More