The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who is known for his development of the theory of relativity and his contributions to quantum mechanics. Einstein’s influence on the world and physics is widespread; he is regarded as one of the greatest thinkers and scientists in the history of humankind. He attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, where he studied mathematics and physics. After leaving the institute for a formal high school education, Einstein renounced his German citizenship and was granted Swiss citizenship. The young scholar, who had often skipped classes and made enemies of his professors, struggled to secure an academic position. 

In 1905, Einstein entered what is referred to as his “miracle year.” He took a meager position at a patent office that awarded him with enough free time to devote to scholarly inquiry. He published several works on modern physics and developed the principle of relativity. By 1915, he completed his general theory of relativity and lectured at the University of Göttingen. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

In Conjectures and Refutations (1962), Popper described his frustration with fields like psychoanalysis and the unique scientific approach of Einstein. Popper developed an important consideration while listening to Einstein’s lectures: “It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory—if we look for confirmations.” The philosopher was struck by the fact that discussions about Einstein’s work were not centered on the truth of his theories while discussions in areas like psychoanalysis were centered on truth. Popper visited one of Einstein’s lectures on relativity theory and noted that Einstein did not speak about his work as though it had infallible proof. Instead, Einstein’s theories came with inherent risk, and his methodology presented a stark contrast to the metaphysical positivism of many others in the academic community. Einstein developed testable hypotheses that could be falsified. Popper developed his theory upon the foundation set by Einstein’s practice: Empirical science requires the possibility of falsification.

David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher and writer. Hume focused on epistemology, and he sought to combine the scientific world and the philosophical world. Hume identified what he called the “is-ought problem,” which referenced the tendency of people to draw conclusions or make sweeping inferences about universal truths based solely upon what is. Their understanding of what is relies upon their own personal experiences and sensations. Hume believed that philosophers needed to utilize scientific methods when approaching philosophical questions. He argued that ethical questions could never be truly answered because there was no way to apply scientific reasoning to them. Hume outlined the concept of belief and how it was often used as a replacement for logic. By making statements of belief, philosophers were able to eliminate the application of logic to their theories. Hume was skeptical of belief and the tension it created in the scientific community. He was an advocate for empirical reasoning over rationalism; Kant later took Hume’s ideas about empiricism and reconciled the need for both experience and reason in the acquisition of knowledge.

Popper’s ideas about causality aligned with the ideas set forth by Hume. The latter suggested that there was no way to fully understand the cause of an action. Popper embraced the challenge of identifying a cause due to the infinite number of variables. However, the scientist argued that one should test causes to draw closer to a strict universal statement. While Popper embraced Hume’s disdain for metaphysics and emphasis on scientific reasoning, Popper built his philosophy in contrast to Hume’s proposal that empirical science will always have a contradiction between the verification of universal of laws through experience and the limitation of experience. Popper proposed that he could eliminate that contradiction by avoiding verification altogether and focusing, instead, on falsifiability.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian psychoanalyst who developed important theories that continue to impact the fields of psychology and sociology. He earned a doctorate in medicine from the University of Vienna and later left Vienna to evade Nazi persecution. Freud developed psychoanalysis and talk therapy; he encouraged his patients to speak freely and openly about what they were experiencing. In doing so, he believed that his patients could bring their repressed issues forward from the unconscious to the conscious. Freud believed that all people were driven by the pleasure principle: The choices they made were all based upon the physical and emotional rewards they could obtain from their actions. His theories of ego, id, and superego, as well as his work with dream interpretation, are often used to understand and analyze works of literature.

In The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Popper was highly critical of Freud’s methods. He believed Freud manipulated data to justify his proposed theories. Many critics have challenged Popper’s analysis of Freud’s work, arguing that Freud did embrace falsifiability in his practice and that psychoanalysis has equal footing with other scientific branches. In several instances in his work, Freud confirms that his theories are based upon the limited data made available to him and that his theories may be falsified by contradictory examples. However, Popper’s criticism of psychoanalysis reflects a tradition of societal and scientific dismissal of psychological study.