I have been reading a lot these days about Western philosophy. The most recent book, All Life is Problem Solving (Routledge, 2001), is by Karl Popper, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century. This is a collection of Popper’s writings. One of the great teachings from Popper is the concept of “falsification,” which means that as a scientist one should always try to disprove a theory rather than try to confirm it.

A classic example is the case of black swans (not Nicholas Taleb’s black swan). If one were to theorize that all swans are white, based on the empirical evidence of observing only white swans, then that is simply confirming the theory. The observer is not actively trying to disprove his theory. When a black swan is discovered, his theory now breaks down.

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