"I read Karl Popper's The Open Society and its Enemies. Popper, whose analysis in many ways complemented that of Hayek, approached Marxism from the point of view of the philosopher of the natural sciences. This meant that he was ideally equipped to expose the fraudulent claim of Marxists to have discovered immutable laws of history, social development or "progress" – laws which were comparable to the laws of natural science. It was not just that the "inevitable" course of events which Marx had prophesied had not occurred and showed no signs of occurring. Marx and Marxists had not even understood the scientific method, let alone practised it in their analysis. Unlike the Marxists – whether historians, economists or social scientists – who tried to "prove" their theories by accumulating more and more facts to sustain them, "the method of science is rather to look out for facts which may refute the theory... and the fact that all tests of the theory are attempted falsifications of predictions derived with its help furnishes the clue to scientific method". The political consequences of this basic error – perhaps more properly described as basic fraud – were summed up by Popper in the dedication of his later book The Poverty of Historicism: "In memory of the countless men, women and children of all creeds or nations or races who fell victims to the fascist and communist belief in Inexorable Laws of Historical Destiny.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
HumanistsPhilosophers from the United KingdomPhilosophers from AustriaLogicians from AustriaLogicians from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (1995), pp. 58-59
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Popper
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"[F]rom the moral point of view, pain cannot be outweighed by pleasure, and especially not one man's pain by another m…"
"We should realize that from the moral point of view suffering and happiness must not be treated as symmetrical; that …"
"I believe that there is, from the ethical point of view, no symmetry between suffering and happiness, or between pain…"
"Appealing to his Einstein's] way of expressing himself in theological terms, I said: If God had wanted to put everyth…"
"The answer to this problem is: as implied by Hume, we certainly are not justified in reasoning from an instance to th…"
"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the t…"
"Scientists try to eliminate their false theories, they try to let them die in their stead. The believer—whether anima…"
"If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look…"
"Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technolog…"
"You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which…"