The Logic of Scientific Discovery

What Hacker News says

1. dredmorbiusOct 2021
   I had a brief email exchange with Csikszentmihalyi a few years ago over a concept he'd mentioned in an Edge essay. Discussion turned to other notable Hungarians (and Austrians), including the Polanyis (Karl and Michael). He'd known their neice, Eva Zeisel Polanyi, a ceramicist, and he dropped this small-world gem:

   Karl Popper used to go hunting in the summers through the Carpatian Mountains with my grandfather; occasionally they were joined by August von Hayek, who later also got a Nobel in Economics . . . I learned a lot about my grandfather from him . . . And indirectly a lot from Popper, whose Das Logik Der Vorschung (translated into English with the strange title of The Logic of Scientific Discovery) was for years my Bible.

   I'd first heard of his Flow concept on a public radio interview I caught whilst on a road-trip through a remote rural high plateau, in the 1990s. Highly memorable and mildly surreal listening to his voice as the countryside flowed past.

   Vale, Mihaly.

   Show morethread
2. coldteaDec 2020
   Here's a quick, fun, path, that goes all over the place, but covers lots of areas, while being accessible to a tech guy:

   1) Plato's dialogues. They are easy to find, including online, and easy to read.

   A.N Whitehead once commented on Plato’s thought: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them”.

   And that's not some liberal arts philosopher that doesn't understand science. That's the genius writer and mathematician A.N Whitehead that worked with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica.

   2) Aristotle, The Metaphysics

   3) Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

   4) David Hume's: A Treatise of Human Nature and/or An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

   5) Nietchze, The gay science (meaning "the joyful science")

   6) Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations

   7) Existentialism Is a Humanism, Sartre

   8) The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper

   9) Against Method, Paul Feyerabend

   Show morethread
3. tirumaraiselvanMay 2020
   TLDR: Read hard books and keep increasing the level.

   I agree 100%. The hardest general books are probably in the area of philosophy. My recent fav: The Logic of Scientific Discovery by Karl Popper.

   thread
4. szemy2May 2019
   I have been consuming philosophy/philosophical themed content for a while, but I am looking to make my overview of philosophical discourse more structured. I need a well-planned learning path. The aim is not for me to become a professional philosopher, but to have an overall understanding that is deep enough to be useful. Naturally, as there is no set outcome, the journey should be preferably enjoyable :)

   Stuff I have read/listened and enjoyed a lot:

   - [PODCAST] Philosophize This http://philosophizethis.org/

   - [BOOK] The Cave and the Light, Arthur Herman https://www.amazon.com/Cave-Light-Aristotle-Struggle-Civilization/dp/0553385666

   - [BOOK] Platon: Apology | Sophist | Symposium

   - [MOOC] Introduction to Philosophy: God, Knowledge and Consciousness https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-philosophy-god-knowledge-mitx-24-00x-2 <- this was great in structure, but there was no clear continuation

   - [BLOG] Philosophy Bro https://www.philosophybro.com/ <- explains concepts clearly

   - [BOOK] Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus | The Stranger

   - [BOOK] The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper <- loved the clarity

   - these came into my mind

   What I didn't enjoy:

   - [BOOK] I tried reading Schelling's Philosophical Inquiries into the Essence of Human Freedom (got it as a present: someone thought I was patient/smart enough to read it, guess they were wrong) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Inquiries_into_the_Essence_of_Human_Freedom

   - I tried reading Kirkegaard, super depressing.

   - Wittgenstein is the kind of philosopher who I really really want to understand, but the style of writing is so difficult I would need much more training to be able to follow it.

   I enjoy Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind and some parts of Ethics.

   Do any of you have a good learning path?

   I appreciate any input!

   Show morethread
5. fatiherikliFeb 2019
   The Logic of Scientific Discovery — Karl Popper. It helped me to draw a strong line between Science and Pseudoscience.
   thread
6. axlproseSep 2018
   > How did we get to the state where the "truth" is such an elusive concept?

   Look into the fields of epistemology and the philosophy of science, in particular the works of Karl Popper such as The Logic of Scientific Discovery. The "truth" has always been an elusive concept. Outside the realm of mathematics, it's rather difficult to objectively prove most things "true".

   thread