The rise of Nazism, and particularly the German annexation of Austria in 1938, prompted Popper to also work on political and social philosophy, where he criticized popular social theories of the day in favor of a more scientific approach. This led him to denounce authoritarian politics in such works as The Open Society and its Enemies.
His scientific work was influenced by his study of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which he used to exemplify the difference between a truly scientific theory and the pseudo-scientific theories of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. In Popper's view, the difference was that theories such as Einstein's could be readily falsified by simple experiments. This criterion of falsifiability, and the practice of using experiments not to verify but to criticize scientific theories, are the cornerstones of true science in his view, in contrast to the common belief at he time (first proposed by Francis Bacon) that science was based on [inductive reasoning]?, and experimental verification. His work The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959, an updated translation of Logik der Forschung) is a classic in the field.
Popper won many awards and honors in his field, including the [Lippincott Award]? of the [American Political Science Association]?, the [Sonning Prize]?, and fellowships in the [Royal Society]?, [British Academy]?, [London School of Economics]?, [Kings College London]?, and [Darwin College Cambridge]?. Austria awarded him the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold. Queen Elizabeth II knighted Popper in 1965, and invested him with the Insignia of a Companion of Honour in 1982.
Works by Popper:
Other works and collections:
External sources: