Season 1 · Episode 120
Episode 120: Popper on Trial
The Theory of Anything · Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen
November 11, 20251h 51m
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Show Notes
This week Bruce puts Popper on trial. Specifically, through the lens of Michael Stevens’s book, The Knowledge Machine, which argues that science works because it follows the “iron law of explanation” where scientists must (at least in public) put aside philosophy, politics, and theology and only follow empirical evidence. Bruce asks, how compatible is this view with the epistemology of Karl Popper?And does Strevens' critique of Popper ring true? Or is it a strawman?