Hayek and Popper: smothered giants of the Twentieth Century

The Appendices

Each volume of guides has  six common appendices.  The first is a brief account of Popper's career and his full list of books. The second explains the six "turns". The third describes how the misreading started from the very beginning because the positivists insisted on regarding him "one of them". The story spread that Popper's "falsificationism" was an alternative to the positivists "verificationism", a story that missed all the essential features of Popper's contribution that is summed up in the six turns.

Can the Fortunes of Hayek and Popper be Revived (in case it matters?)

If ideas matter, as Keynes claimed (and demonstrated with the ruinous success of his own ideas) then we  cannot afford to lose some of the best thinking of the 20^th century.  Around the world there are pressing problems of debt and social dislocation. An adult discussion is required  to address these problems and one would expect the  university-educated  intellectuals of the world to lead the way.  However  the intellectual debate has been corrupted and this is reflected in the simultaneously toxic and infantilized climate of political debate in Australia. So far as the educated public is concerned, the ideas of Popper and Hayek have been lost. It remains to be seen if they can be retrieved.

Top Ten Misreadings of Popper

The fourth appendix lists the Top Ten Misreadings, with examples and replies.

1. The Popper Legend. He was a kind of positivist and the falsifiability criterion is about meaning.

2.  Popper was a “naïve falsificationist”.

3. Failure to draw the distinction between falsifiability (a matter of logical form) and falsification (a practical matter).

4. "Scientists don't practice falsification".

5. Science would have come to a stop under the influence of falsificationism.

6. Popper's approach was static, unhistorical , obsessed with the right "method" and took no account of the social context of science.