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About this quote

What does it mean?
Scientific progress starts with existing beliefs but requires questioning them rigorously.
In plain terms
Science uses old ideas but must criticize them to grow.
What can you take from it?
Question established myths to advance knowledge.

Where it applies

  • education
  • research
  • public discourse

Putting it to work

  • challenging assumptions
  • scientific literacy
  • critical debate

Questions to consider

  • How do myths shape science?
  • What myths should we question?

Another view

Some myths serve important cultural functions.

More from Karl Popper

  1. What we should do, I suggest, is to give up the idea of ultimate sources of knowledge, and admit that all knowledge is human; that it is mixed with our errors,…

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  2. The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very f…

    Permalink to quote #40
  3. The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our …

    Permalink to quote #37

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