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Letter on Evolution
[A reply to Halstead, 1980]
Karl [R.] Popper
Published:
POPPER, Karl, 1980. Evolution. New Scientist 87(1215):611.
�In the 17 July issue of New Scientist (p. 215) you published an article under the title �Popper: good philosophy, bad science?� by Dr Beverly Halstead. This article, it appears had two purposes:
Reference
1. To defend the scientific character of the theory of evolution, and of palaeontology. I fully support this purpose, and this letter will be almost exclusively devoted to the defence of the theory of evolution.
2. To attack me.
As to (2), I find this uninteresting and I shall not waste your space and my time in defending myself against what are in my opinion hardly excusable misunderstandings. and wild speculations about my motives and their alleged history.
Returning to (1), it does appear from your article (provided its quotation from Colin Patterson�s book – which I do not know – is not as misleading as your quotations from my book) that some people think that I have denied scientific character to the historical sciences, such as palaeontology, or the history of the evolution of life on Earth; or to say, the history of literature, or of technology, or of science.
This is a mistake, and I here wish to affirm that these and other historical sciences have in my opinion scientific character: their hypotheses can in many cases be tested.
It appears as if some people would think that the historical sciences are untestable because they describe unique events. However, the description of unique events can very often be tested by deriving from them testable predictions or retrodictions.
Karl Popper Penn�
HALSTEAD, Beverly, 1980. Popper: good philosophy, bad science? New Scientist 87(1210):215-217.
This page:
POPPER, Karl, 2000. [Letter on] Evolution. [A reply to Halstead, 1980]. Available on the internet: http://www.geocities.com/geocities/9468/popper80.htm. 14 April 2000 (publication). First published: New Scientist 87(1215):611, 21 Aug. 1980.
Science ciencia filosofia da ciencia philosophy of science historia da ciencia Beverly Halstead Karl Popper Popper, Karl Karl R. Popper
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