ABSTRACT
‘Theory’ will be used in this chapter to refer to any set of ideas on which we might act or interpret the world. We follow Karl Popper in this, who went so far as to argue that biological organisms have built-in theories setting expectations and informing behaviours. If expectations and consequential behaviours are too far off the mark, the biological organism perishes. In contrast to other organisms, human beings can, ‘allow hypotheses to die in their stead’ (Popper, 1972, p. 244). By this Popper means that we can invent, critically discuss and test our hypotheses empirically in advance of putting ourselves at stake by acting on them.
