Conjecture and criticism

Week 1: reason · epistemology

Conjecture and criticism

Run the Popperian engine: bold conjecture → severe test → improvement, in a small case.

In this lesson

  1. Read the core idea (2 min).
  2. Walk through one worked example.
  3. Take the 4-question quiz; pass with 4/4 or better.

Hook

If knowledge is what survives criticism, the natural next question is: what does that process actually look like? It is tempting to imagine it as a stately, rational procedure. The reality, on Popper's account, is much more dynamic and much more useful.

This lesson runs you through the engine itself — bold conjecture, severe test, improvement — and shows why the loop's bias toward boldness is what makes it generate knowledge instead of just accumulating beliefs.