Episode
Episode 138: "Popperian" vs "Deutschian" Epistemology
- Podcast
- The Theory of Anything
- Published
- Apr 29, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 6898
- Processing state
processed
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Summary
Bruce has made a controversial claim on this show: today's "CritRats" (Critical Rationalists on X) have drifted from what Popper intended. And surprisingly, some of the drift traces back to David Deutsch's reinterpretation of Popper in an attempt to solve real problems with Popper's original epistemology. In this episode, Bruce unpacks exactly how — tracing the key points where Deutsch and Popper diverge: verisimilitude, demarcation, testability vs. criticism, and what "refutation" actually meant to Popper (hint: not what you think). A sympathetic but rigorous look at where "Deutschianism" improves on "Popperianism" and where it quietly smuggles in new problems. Support us on Patreon