ABSTRACT
One of the most signifi cant thinkers of the twentieth century, Karl Popper centred his whole philosophy around the intrinsically fallible character of our knowledge. According to him, the edifi ce of science does not rest upon solid bedrock, but plunges its roots into a muddy swamp:
The empirical basis of objective science has [ . . . ] nothing ‘absolute’ about it. Science does not rest upon solid bedrock. The bold structure of its theories rises, as it were, above a swamp. It is like a building erected on piles. The piles are driven down from above into the swamp, but not down to any natural or ‘given’ base; and if we stop driving the piles deeper, it is not because we have reached fi rm ground. We simply stop when we are satisfi ed that the piles are fi rm enough to carry the structure, at least for the time being.1
