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Karl Popper

Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA (28 July 1902 in Vienna – 17 September 1994 in Croydon) was an Austro-British philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics. He is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century; he also wrote extensively on social and political philosophy.

Popper is known for his attempt to repudiate the classical observationalist/inductivist form of scientific method in favour of empirical falsification. He is also known for his opposition to the classical justificationist account of knowledge which he replaced with critical rationalism, "the first non justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy". As well, he is known for his vigorous defence of liberal democracy and the principles of social criticism that he came to believe made a flourishing "open society" possible.

Popper coined the term critical rationalism to describe his philosophy.

In The Open Society and Its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism, Popper developed a critique of historicism and a defence of the 'Open Society'. Among his contributions to philosophy is his attempt to answer the philosophical problem of induction as emphasized strongly by David Hume.

Popper played a vital role in establishing the philosophy of science as a vigorous, autonomous discipline within analytic philosophy.

Popper founded in 1946 the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics. In 1947, Popper founded with Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises and others the Mont Pelerin Society to defend classical liberalism, in the spirit of the Open Society.