Life Is Solving Problems

Under (m)any circumstances

Oh, really? What an obvious thing are you telling me?

Well, my dear.

First of all, it’s not only me telling you about this evident aspect of life.

Or you want to make me believe you’re not thinking about solving your problems all day long?

Third option. The question has been debated by a famous philosopher, Karl Popper. Maybe you’d like to know what an expert said on the matter.

In his book “Life is about solving problems”, a collection of different articles, K. Popper analyzes what science does, and what solving problems means in the area of knowledge.

Science

Science starts off with problems, exactly the ones it tries to solve through clever theories.

Most times theories are false and/or unverifiable.

The precious ones that are verifiable are examined to find out if there are any mistakes in them.

When errors are found they get eliminated. And so it goes on.

This is what precisely science is. A lot of risky savage ideas rigidly scrutinized for the search and correction of what is not right.

Science has a failure as its starting statement. If the theory fails it can be substituted by a better one.

A theory belongs to the empirical science only if it happens to be respondent to the principle of falsificability.

So, for example, the theory according to which a vaccine protects against smallpox is falsificable. In fact, in case someone who has been correctly vaccinated gets ill from smallpox, the theory gets falsificated.

Empirical science is not the possession of truth but method.

Popper’s epistemology

According to Popperian epistemology the world is defined through an evolutionary process in which every form of life faces its own problems and learn to solve them by evolving, otherwise it dies.

For humans, the ability to formulate theories and test them manages to avoid empirical evidence that is sometimes destructive.

Furthermore, thanks to the publication of ideas and the comparison with the whole community, we can have a better and greater evolution than that which other living forms have.

In summary, Popper describes the evolution of life and society in a continuous attempt to overcome obstacles, with trial and error.

Every time a theory succeeds it proves the falsity of what has been believed to be true until then and so will its fate.

Popper’s theory applied to humans: takeaways

What Karl Popper’s theory suggests to us humans is that we have the opportunity to learn to do things in the best way we can.

Whenever we search for our mistakes and we find them, we have a chance to change ourselves.

I’ll repeat it: we can do the best we can if we accept to change ourselves.

What’s the point in finding out a mistake without taking action on it soon afterwards, by changing ourselves?

Conclusion

The future is always open. It depends on us, on all of us.

Even if it’s sometimes difficult to believe, science has brought an improvement to human life.

What’s going to happen next?

Life is solving problems. I hope we are all ready to change.