Coming to the discussion late, it is good to see some attention to Popper's
ideas because it has long appeared that comparison and contrast of Popper
with Peirce and also with Dewey would be rewarding. Popper's leading idea is
often depicted as falsificationism versus the verificationism of the Vienna
positivsts and the logical empiricists. That is hard to avoid because Popper
made such big effort to engage with Carnap and his associates, however the
standard account of Popper as a falsificationist does not do justice to the
full extent of his program of critical rationalism and evolutionary
epistemology.
The first step of the program can be described as a full-blooded
"conjectural turn", parallel to the fallibilism of Peirce, to claim that
even our best theories may be rendered problematic by new evidence, new
criticisms and new theories. This anticipated the "hermeneutic turn" when
appreciation of the theory-dependence of observations and arguments became
more widespread in the wake of Kuhn and the modern French theorists. Other
"turns" include the "objectivist turn" to break with the obsession with the
justification of beliefs and instead to focus on the strengths and
weaknesses of theories that are stated in a public, inter-subjective or
"objective" form. Then there is Popper's "social turn" to examine the
function of institutions, traditions, conventions and "rules of the game" in
science and society. This has been spelled out by Ian Jarvie. And finally
the "metaphysical turn" to recognise the pervasive influence of
philosophical or metaphysical ideas which are the framework assumptions or
presuppositions of thought.
For more on the "turns" see
http://www.the-rathouse.com/Pop-Schol/PopperTurns.html
Rafe Champion
Sydney, Australia
http://www.the-rathouse.com
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