Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author admits changing his view on natural selection's testability and logically status.
In plain terms
I changed my mind about natural selection and am glad to admit it.
What can you take from it?
Be willing to recant when evidence or logic demands it.

Where it applies

  • scientific debate
  • theoretical review
  • peer critique

Putting it to work

  • admit errors
  • update theories

Questions to consider

  • When did you last change your mind?
  • Are you open to recanting?

Another view

It reflects a specific historical debate that may not apply universally.

More from Karl Popper

  1. Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research program.

    Permalink to quote #47
  2. 'Natural selection and the emergence of mind' dialectica Vol. 32 (1978), p. 339-355; republished in Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology o…

    Permalink to quote #49
  3. Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.

    Permalink to quote #46

Related quotes

  1. Scientific knowledge is in perpetual evolution; it finds itself changed from one day to the next.

    Jean PiagetJean Piaget quote #11
  2. All interesting issues in natural history are questions of relative frequency, not single examples. Everything happens once amidst the richness of nature. But …

    Stephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould quote #75
  3. If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

    Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein quote #204