Scientific Theory and Intersubjectivity in Popper's Work

The choice of Popper’s thought is significant for us because it highlights the importance of reasoning through singular existential statements. Too often, his philosophy is quickly reduced to his scientific method falsificationism. Yet at its core, it contains an analytic philosophy that rejects all forms of dogma. Rooted in the legacy of Kant, who emphasized the role of statements in the construction of scientific theories, Popper distances himself from universal statements, which, rather than advancing thought and allowing science to progress, lead instead to an infinite regression.

Popper presents himself as an empiricist, but not in the positivist sense of the Vienna Circle. That positivism excluded metaphysics and recognized only meaningful statements as expressions of science. Such an empiricism is reductive, as it dismisses any form of inquiry that could broaden our understanding of the cosmos. Einstein, for example, did not make discoveries by mere fidelity to facts, but through creative intuition—what became known as theoretical physics. Popper, by contrast, affirms and defends a new empiricism that incorporates the possible provided that such possibilities are subjected to intersubjective testing in order to qualify as scientific theory.

Popper’s analytic philosophy accords a central role to singular existential statements. It is through experiential statements that we arrive, via conjecture and refutation, at scientific theories. Science or rather, the logic of discovery—requires no ultimate (universal) statement. Verification or demonstration would reduce science to a fixed schema, which for Popper amounts to infinite regression. Each singular existential statement is a spatiotemporal reference point with its own specificities. From these specificities emerges a singular universal particular to each cultural sphere.

Singular existential statements therefore allow the scientific model itself to be redefined. There are no absolutes and no universals—only singular statements which, through plural syntheses, can give rise to a singular universal. Through such an approach, each people may be recognized in its specificity, establish its own scientific jurisdiction, and thereby defend its scientific production. Popper’s philosophy is thus particularly relevant for an Africa seeking to affirm its scientific autonomy.