The man who buried Marx and Freud. (Karl Popper) (Obituary)

Economist (US), The, September, 1994

UNTIL his death on September 17th, Sir Karl Popper was the best- known and most widely read of living philosophers. There were no challengers. Why? Because he had a simple idea that anybody can understand. It is that man makes progress by making mistakes.

Popper applied this thesis to science and to politics. In science, he argued that the mark of a good theory was that it should be easily falsifiable--that is, open to correction. He attacked Freud for propounding theories so all-encompassing that they could not be refuted. Freudianism, argued Popper, could explain away any apparent criticism, and therefore did not count as genuinely scientific.

In politics, Popper said the mark of a good system of government was that it, too, should be open to criticism. No...