1 In 1954 Karl Popper published an article attempting to show that the identification of the quantitative concept degree of confirmation with the quantitative concept degree of probability is a serious error. The error was presumably committed by J. M. Keynes, H. Reichen bach and R. Carnap. 2 It was Popper's intention then, to expose the error and to introduce an explicatum for the prescientific concept of degree of confirmation. A few months later Y. Bar-Hillel published an article attempting to show that no serious error had been committed (particularly by Carnap) and that the problem introduced by Popper was simply a "verbal one. "3 Popper replied immediately that "Dr. Bar-Hillel forces me [Popper] now to criticize Carnap's theory further," and he [Popper] introduced further objections which, if accepted, destroy Carnap's theory. 4 About eight years after this exchange took place I was in graduate school at the University of Chicago in search of a topic for a doctoral dissertation. An investigation of the issues involved in this exchange seemed to be ideal for me because I had (and still have) a great ad miration for the work of both Carnap and Popper. A thoroughly revised and I hope improved account of that investigation appears in the first five chapters of this book. Put very briefly, what I found were four main points of contention.

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Authors and Affiliations

University of Guelph, Canada

Alex C. Michalos

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: The Popper-Carnap Controversy
Authors: Alex C. Michalos
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3048-9
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands 1971
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-247-5127-3Published: 31 July 1971
eBook ISBN: 978-94-010-3048-9Published: 06 December 2012
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 124
Topics: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy, general

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

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