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21. Karl Popper's Philosophy of Science: Rationality Without Foundations by Stefano Gattei | |
Hardcover: 136
Pages
(2010-10)
list price: US$39.95 -- used & new: US$39.95 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0415887763 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (1)
GIVE ME THE REAL, GENUINE THING; NOT THE WANT-TO0-BE. |
22. The Poverty of Historicism by Karl R. Popper | |
Hardcover: 166
Pages
(1957-01-01)
Asin: B003R3ALJC Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Customer Reviews (10)
Great book
It is impossible to know and control what people think (B. Spinoza)
Non expert summary of the book
He sees a fundamental truth of the human situation
Amazon reader In it, Popper develops the argument that "Historicism" (the term has more than one meaning in different contexts) as he defines it is a flawed approach, and that it is not a justifiable base for the sweeping claims of the historicist. To Popper, historicism is the concept that, by examination of history, we are able to define the rules that govern social change and hence are able to predict those changes. His initial impetus to look into this area was a critical evaluation of Marx - see his essay "How I became a philosopher without really trying" published in "All life is problem solving". In its simplest form, Popper's argument is the observation that observation of the past does not allow one to accurately predict the future. This may seem to be a fairly obvious statement, but it is worth keeping in mind as he develops the various arguments that make up the case for and against historicism. Popper's philosophy is often overlooked, perhaps because he attempts to limit himself to goals that he can reasonably achieve. He is a very prominent figure in the philosophy of science, and much of his epistemology relates to the methodology of the empirical sciences, and hence to direct observation, and the relationship of observation to development and testing of theories. Perhaps because he is not too ambitious, his philosophy is less "sexy". It is, however, eminently reasonable, and avoids many of the great stumbling blocks of traditional Western philosophy - for example, the problem of induction and infinite regress. This book is non-technical, and is accessible to those with little formal philosophical training. It addresses the dominant paradigm in social engineering, and suggests why we may be unhappy with that paradigm. ... Read more |
23. Karl Popper: Critical Appraisals | |
Hardcover: 248
Pages
(2004-12-03)
list price: US$115.00 -- used & new: US$113.52 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0415319706 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (1)
Celebration of Popper down under |
24. Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem: In Defence of Interaction by Karl Popper | |
Paperback: 168
Pages
(1996-02-02)
list price: US$33.95 -- used & new: US$29.88 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0415135567 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (3)
Even the most rational men are in many respects highly irrational
Interactionism of what? Popper tries to build a language to clarify and facilitate discussion and change of ideas, but he writes in such a way that many people are missleaded. I know people who see in Popper a foundations for their mistical views of the Universe ( afriend of mine even argues with me that evolution is not the answer to the many features we humans have: seek the mind, he says.So, is three-worlds philosophy has led some people to seek the mind OUTSIDE the brain (they don't perceive that one of the strugles of science is the reduction of EMERGENT properties to POTENCIALS - be they phisical or chemical potentials). What really interacts are phisical sistems (the various subsistems of the brain, these subsistems and the outside world). His evolutionary epistemology has lots is common with modern sociobiology, but sociobiology is better. Another problem with Popper's epistemology is that he reduces epistemological concepts to ontological things. His epistemology should be viewd as heuristic, not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. By the way, if you read Popper's book and enjoy'd it, read Hofstadter's GEB (Godel, Escher, Bach). You wont regret.
indispensible texton epistemology and interactionism |
25. Rethinking Popper (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science) | |
Paperback: 430
Pages
(2009-05-11)
list price: US$189.00 -- used & new: US$150.03 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1402093373 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description In September 2007, more than 100 philosophers came to Prague with the determination to approach Karl Popper’s philosophy as a source of inspiration in many areas of our intellectual endeavor. This volume is a result of that effort. Topics cover Popper’s views on rationality, scientific methodology, the evolution of knowledge and democracy; and since Popper’s philosophy has always had a strong interdisciplinary influence, part of the volume discusses the impact of his ideas in such areas as education, economics, psychology, biology, or ethics. The concept of falsification, the problem of demarcation, the ban on induction, or the role of the empirical basis, along with the provocative parallels between historicism, holism and totalitarianism, have always caused controversies. The aim of this volume is not to smooth them but show them as a challenge. In this time when the traditional role of reason in the Western thought is being undermined, Popper’s non-foundationist model of reason brings the Enlightenment message into a new perspective. Popper believed that the open society was vulnerable, due precisely to its tolerance of otherness. This is a matter of great urgency in the modern world, as cultures based on different values gain prominence. The processes related to the extending of the EU, or the increasing economic globalization also raise questions about openness and democracy. The volume’s aim is to show the vitality of critical rationalism in addressing and responding to the problems of this time and this world. |
26. The Open Society and its Enemies by Karl Popper | |
Hardcover: 920
Pages
(2002-05-24)
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27. Karl Popper And the Social Sciences (Suny Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences) by William A. Gorton | |
Paperback: 160
Pages
(2006-01-19)
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28. Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics: From The Postscript to the Logic of Scientific Discovery by Karl Popper | |
Paperback: 256
Pages
(1992-04-10)
list price: US$46.95 -- used & new: US$37.07 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0415091128 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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Hard to understand
A world of propensities and metaphysical dreams |
29. An Introduction to the Thought of Karl Popper by Roberta Corvi | |
Kindle Edition: 224
Pages
(2007-03-14)
list price: US$38.95 Asin: B000OI0U44 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description This is a comprehensive introduction to the philosophical and political thought of Karl Popper, now available in English. It is divided into three parts, dealing with his biographical data, his works and recurrent themes, and finally his critics. It was approved of by Popper himself as a sympathetic and comprehensive study, and will be ideal to meet the increasing demand for a summary introduction to his work. Customer Reviews (2)
Karl Popper's books are better than this introduction
Popper, Condensed and Referenced I would give it 5 stars, but as Popper would be the first toacknowledge, there is always room for improvement! ... Read more |
30. Science and the Open Society : The Future of Karl Popper's Philosophy by Mark Notturno | |
Hardcover: 287
Pages
(2000-04-20)
list price: US$49.95 Isbn: 9639116696 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description This groundbreaking volume draws together themes from Popper'sepistemology and social philosophy - showing, for example, theconnections between his distrust of communism and inductivism, hisresistance to institutionalized science and logical positivism, andhis opposition to intellectual authority and bureaucracy. Notturnodiscusses Popper's disagreements with Wittgenstein, Freud, Carnap,Gruenbaum and Kuhn, while developing the implications of his view fora wide range of contemporary issues, including politics, education,logic, critical thinking and the history of 20th century philosophy. Science and the Open Society is written for the general reader in astyle that will appeal to philosophers and non-philosophers alike. Customer Reviews (5)
Great writing about Great Thinking! Why? First off, anyone who's read Karl Popper knows that he was a phenomenal writer who could pack much content into any one sentence. Mark Notturno is not only that good, dare I say it, he may be better at it than Popper?! Whereas Popper's terseness occasionally led him to vagueries, Notturno is always crisp. Second, books on Popper tend to rehash his views (which the authors either understand or not - 50/50). Notturno extends Popper's thought. Never quite disagreeing with any of it, Notturno does find fault with a few of Poppers vagueries and corrects them. The essay herein - "induction and demarcation" is notable as it focuses on Poppers tendency to mislead on certain views he held. The distinction between falsification and falsifiability, the problem not being of induction altogether but the fact that bad inductive conclusions, unlike deduction, will not point to a false premise, and from it the fact that Popper did not quite believe all induction to be invalid. Some other good essays to note (in addition to the ones listed two reviews below) are "education and the open society" which is a good essay on why current education methods might fail (his similarity to John Dewey in this, and other, regards always amazes me). Also 'inference and deference' is a great article exposing the failure of logic to justify, contra popular philosophic practice, deference to authority. Not barring it outright, Notturno highlights two errors of thought that lead us to defer abdicatingly to authority: defensive thinking and poitical thinking. If there was an essay focusing solely on these two concepts (this one only devotes a few paragraphs) then I would've had to give the book seven stars. Also worthy of mention is the afterword "what is to be done" about post-communism and how a proper trainsitiion to a truly open-society can take place. In short, very good book. If you are a Popper fan and are tired of reading secondary books that only rehash, never expand, this is the best book I can think of.
Blows Your Mind
The Enduring Legacy of Karl Popper: A Review All of the Chapters in "Science and the Open Society" are striking and contain worthwhile insights. As a whole they allow one to think about the corpus of Popper's work and the major themes he developed over the course of 60 years. In fact, Popper himself wrote no single work that would allow us to do that. Notturno, in providing that perspective here, gives us a bird's eye view that we must work much harder to get from Popper's work. If you seek an understanding of Popper, start with Notturno and then read Popper for yourself, with the context you need to actively grasp what Popper presents. All of the book is valuable, but there are a few Chapters that stand out from my own perspective as a Knowledge Management practitioner. These are Chapter 10 on the choice between Popper and Kuhn, Chapter 7 on the meaning of world 3, Chapter 5, a brilliant account of the breakdown of foundationalism and justificationism and of how Popper's critical rationalism escapes from the problems inherent in these views and provides a basis for solving the problems of induction and demarcation, and Chapter 3 on the significance of critical rationalism for education in open societies. Here is a more detailed review of Chapters 10 and 7. Chapter 10, "The Choice Between Popper and Kuhn: Truth, Criticism, and the Legacy of Logical Positivism," takes up again the task of proper reconstruction of the nature of science following the breakdown of logical positivism. Notturno shows that Popper and Kuhn took two contrasting roads in journeying from this crossroads of 20th century philosophy. He traces how Kuhn and the many who followed him took the road to relativism, institutionalism, and "political" science, while denying the possibility of external rational critques of governing paradigms. Popper, on the other hand, took the road to thoroughgoing fallibilistic truth-seeking, a path which rejected foundationalism and justificationism, and offered a view of scientific objectivity attained through shared criticism of alternative knowledge claims conjectured as solutions to problems. As Notturno puts it (P. 230): "The issue at base is whether science should be an open or a closed society." Notturno shows that its is Kuhn's choice that leads to the closed society, and Popper's that supports the idea that (P. 248) ". . . our scientific institutions should exist for the sake of the individual - for the sake of our freedom of thought and our right to express it - and not the other way around." Chapter 7 is a careful account of Popper's controversial notion that there are at least three "worlds" or realms of ontological significance: (1) the material world of tables, atoms, buildings, lamps, etc., (2) the mental world of thoughts, beliefs, emotions, etc. and (3) the "world" of words and language, art, mathematics, music, and other human, non-material, but sharable and autonomous creations. Popper criticized monism, the doctrine that only the physical world exists, and dualism, the idea that there is only mind, matter, and the interaction between them, in favor of a broader interactionism among three realms. This idea has been among the most difficult of notions for people to accept. To many (including Feyerabend and Lakatos who ridiculed it), it smacks of Platonism, even though Popper clearly distinguished his own world 3 ideas from platonic forms. But Popper's world 3 notions are critical to his ideas about the pursuit of truth, criticism and trial and error as the method of science and problem-solving, the growth of knowledge, and evolutionary epistemology. Popper's world 3 is also critical to knowledge management, because without it we can't sensibly talk about managing the interaction between subjective mental knowledge (world 2) and objective linguistic knowledge (world 3), and, one can argue, it is managing this interaction to enhance the growth of relevant knowledge that is knowledge management's greatest challenge and major preoccupation. Of all the commentary I have seen on world 3 Chapter 7 is the best at simply stating what Popper meant by it, why the notion is important to critical rationalism and the growth of knowledge, why people have denied its importance, why world 3 is consistent with a thoroughgoing fallibilism, why world 3 is a denial of empiricist epistemology, why the notion of world 3 is not invalidated by the greatly over-rated "Ockham's Razor," why world 3 doesn't violate the principle of causality, and finally why world 3 is important in spite of the view of the Wittgensteinians that solutions to philosophical problems which world 3 is an instance of, are meaningless because such problems are themselves meaningless. And in the process of doing this commentary, Notturno presents and analyzes for us a wonderful story of an encounter between Popper and Wittgenstein (mediated by Bertrand Russell) at Cambridge on October 26, 1946, which in microcosm, illustrates the conflict between reason and authority, and the open society and the closed society. It was an encounter in which the master of the cold stare, the mystique of genius, and the pithy aphorism, found himself so frustrated by the master of critque and dialogue that he left the field of open debate in anger and disgust.
Free up your thinking with this book Theauthor has applied remarkable energy to running open society seminarsthrough the post-Soviet world. Some of the chapters of thebook are basedon these seminars, and the talks are honed through frequent delivery beforegroups that are receptive yet skeptical. It would be a terrible mistake toassume that the presence of this audience means that the book is notrelevant to the American experience. Notturno understands that Popper'sintention was to promote openness in all modern societies, not justCommunist ones,and he has admirably brought Popper's program up to date.He efficiently critiques the primacy given to consensus in science. He alsoaddresses dangers outside the scientific institution proper by taking ontolerance, relativism, therapy, and bureaucracy. In several cases hisstarting point is biographical, and he offers some revealing letters andcontemporary accounts that most of us will not be familiar with. Thesematerials give his philosophical arguments freshness and motivation notoften found in academic works.Wittgenstein, Carnap, Freud, Bohr, Kuhn,and several other heroes are indicted for various offenses against openscience. Popper isn'tspared either, though he certainly comes out aheadon crucial matters. The best feature of the book is that the reader hasa sense of where to begin and what to do. I found myself wanting to standup, ask aquestion, and engage somebody in authentic discussion. You arepropelled forward toward problems, in your own voice, not backwardtowardanything that Popper might have said. I can image that this would be a veryuseful book in almost any public affairs course that reflects on groundrules for debate and investigation. Better yet, the book can help adultlearners free themselves from the stifling rhetoric of ideologists. Iwas curious and asked Notturno where his program is headed. I was pleasedto find that he has plans for workshops, internationalacademic contacts,dissertation support, and other collaborations that offer practicalresults, or at least a fuller sense of whatrational discussion entails. Irecommend that you get in touch with him, especially if you have ideas onhow to institutionalize theseactivities. ...................... Disputing disputation. I accept what Notturno extracts from Popper asgood logic, but I wonder whether something more needs to be saidabout thesocial side of argument. Popper was relentless in finding thecontradictions in others. Students who tried to fend him offusingself-protective rhetoric often felt ridiculed when his persistent questionseventually forced them to admit their errors.But it is probably the casethat students who adhered to good logic were also humiliated. Theassumption behind such intellectualconflict is that contradictions arenot voluntarily displayed. More generally, one defends tidy statements thatbrook no problem. Is that the kind of statement we must have at the readybefore speaking to each other, and is that process ideal? I wonder aboutsuch things, and suffer for it. Last week, I drafted a report and offeredexamples of how software could be used. Imentioned an operation thatwould be useful to execute in the software, but cautioned that theoperation might be too difficult toimplement. I figured that it would beuseful to retain the idea as a possibility rather than to discard it. Theproject manager, adheringto conventional practice, did not want this orany problem mentioned in our report, and the idea was discarded. Themotivation, I suppose,is to give the client nothing that can bequestioned, nothing incomplete. Is that good? The same sort of thinghappens when writing definitions. The definition and examples stay wellwithin what is safe to say, and noguidance is offered that would helpdecide hard cases, which is exactly when definitions are needed. Wechallenge each other to find weaknesses that we are reluctant to discloseand may actually be hiding. It is a cat and mouse game, nota mutualexploration with a common object. To explore together would require a kindof trust between partners that doesn't often exist.One approach tobuilding that trust is to create a space for imaginative thought in which adifferent set of rules is enforced. DeBono has argued well for aseparate imaginative effort prior the critical effort, symbolized as greenhat versus black hat thinking. But consider how things actually play out inan organization that sequesters thinking in this way. 3M requires thatpeople work on secret projects for a significant percentage of their time,and theyare expected to bring a project forward when it is ready to becriticized. Whenever anything is brought before an "outsider",the presumption is that it is offered as something to be attacked. There isno possibility of wider collaboration beyond a secret cell of partners. To put it bluntly, I'm wondering whether loose thinking should be anelement of openness. The idea is not to avoid critical thinking, buttoneither elevate nor extend it to the point that it suppresses options,rewards timidity, and encourages unproductive conflict. [1] In both scienceand business, new approaches that eventually prove to be better usuallyperform poorly at the beginning. An idea gains afollowing on anintuitive, theoretical, or emotional basis before it reaches final form.[2] Without these non-rational appeals, which arevery similar to the"communal" appeals that Notturno counts as a danger, theinnovation pipeline could dry up. [3] Notturno says thatfalse theoriesare a dime a dozen, which is true, but new theories are in the same stack. An open attitude, I feel, is something different from the criticalattitude that is admittedly necessary to sustain both open science and anopen society. An open attitude can tolerate indecision, incompleteness, andeven contradiction. (Someone said that the testof a good mind is that itcan hold contradictory thoughts simultaneously.) [4] The open attitudemoves toward clarity, but not prematurely and not toward complete closure.That may be too muchforbearance to ask for some, and offer too easy aride for others. Yet, in our atmosphere of both heavy criticism and acommunal science that avoids criticism, we tend to confine ourselves tosafe science. Those who can't stand this situation may exile themselves, orclaim outlandish revolutions, neither of which gains any traction..................................
KARL POPPER: Recent book by Notturno |
31. The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge by Karl Popper | |
Hardcover: 552
Pages
(2008-11-24)
list price: US$90.00 -- used & new: US$55.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0415394317 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description In a letter of 1932, Karl Popper described Die beiden Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie – The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge – as ‘…a child of crises, above all of …the crisis of physics.’ Finally available in English, it is a major contribution to the philosophy of science, epistemology and twentieth century philosophy generally. The two fundamental problems of knowledge that lie at the centre of the book are the problem of induction, that although we are able to observe only a limited number of particular events, science nevertheless advances unrestricted universal statements; and the problem of demarcation, which asks for a separating line between empirical science and non-science. Popper seeks to solve these two basic problems with his celebrated theory of falsifiability, arguing that the inferences made in science are not inductive but deductive; science does not start with observations and proceed to generalise them but with problems, which it attacks with bold conjectures. The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge is essential reading for anyone interested in Karl Popper, in the history and philosophy of science, and in the methods and theories of science itself. |
32. La logica de la investigacion cientifica/ The Logic of the Scientific Discovery (Spanish Edition) by Karl R. Popper | |
Paperback: 570
Pages
(2008-06-30)
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33. The Philosophy of Karl Popper by Herbert Keuth | |
Hardcover: 384
Pages
(2004-12-27)
list price: US$95.00 -- used & new: US$91.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0521839467 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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Karl Popper Explained..... |
34. Truth, Hope, and Power: The Thought of Karl Popper by Douglas E. Williams | |
Hardcover: 256
Pages
(1989-01)
list price: US$37.50 -- used & new: US$11.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0802026435 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Customer Reviews (1)
A strange kind of balance Despite these promising indications, the results are disappointing. This is not because Williams dissents radically from many salient features of Popper's philosophy. These disagreements, from a professed admirer of Popper's achievement, should be challenging and illuminating. The problem is that Williams does not provide the arguments and the evidence that are required to make his objections convincing, or to drive the discussion to a deeper level. Inconsistencies and inaccuracies abound. What is one to make of an author who on page 164 rebukes Popper for his 'failure to apppreciate the ideal of the good life in a free and egalitarian society', having previously (p 15) quoted from Popper's Unended Quest 'For nothing could be better than living a modest, simple, and free life in an egalitarian society...'? Williams comments that Popperian exegesis has polarised between disciples and vehement critics. It appears that he has achieved a balance of a kind by occupying each extreme in turn. In one mode he writes: In the critical mode he raises myriad objections, large and small, to Popper's psychology, his epistemology, and his politics, concluding that some of Popper's ideas, especially his concept of rationality, are not consistent with the maintenance of human freedom and autonomy. Williams digs deep to locate the roots of Popper's ideas. He suggests that Popper followed Kant's defence of human dignity and moral autonomy against the twin threats of mechanistic determinism (Newton) and skepticism (Hume.) This is a fertile formulation that could have led directly to an account of Popper's responses to these threats, namely indeterminism, fallibilism, a non-authoritarian theory of knowledge and a limited 'non-justificationist' theory of rationality. Instead, Williams embarks on an account of the rise of science and the battle to maintain a sense of enchantment in a culture of science and technocratic politics. The remaining chapters examine Popper's methodology for the natural sciences (Chapter 4), his prescriptions for the social sciences (Chapter 5) and his defence of liberalism (Chapter 7 and Chapter 8). Chapter 6 defends Mannheim from some Popperian criticism. One of Williams's problems is that he has tried to achieve too much in 200 pages. This tendency is especially apparent in Chapter 4, where in less than thirty pages he covers the development of most of Popper's leading ideas in epistemology and the philosophy of science. This is too densely packed for an introduction and it is likely to confuse people who come to the book in search of Popper's social philosophy. At the end of the chapter Williams changes from the descriptive to the critical mode and delivers an essentially negative verdict on Popper's psychology and also his epistemology. In Williams' conclusion, he wrote that his aim was to faithfully reconstruct the unity of Popper's vision by pursuing an 'immanent critique'. That is, 'criticism of a man or woman's thought is held to flow from his or her own assumptions and values' (185). He wanted to improve on the excessively specialised and polemical nature of most of the commentary on Popper's work. This is a worthy aim but not one that Williams achieved, possibly because he did not make use of Bartley's account of the 'metacontextual shift' generated by Popper's non-authoritarian theory of knowledge and politics. Consequently Williams has been unable to do justice to Popper's epistemology and its cultural implications. A similar problem has apparently occurred with Williams' critique of Popper's politics, especially Popper's views on the limited, protective role of the state. Williams has promulgated some very misleading statements, on Popper's views about the role of technocrats and social engineering, for example. This is a situation where the imminent critique may need to be supplemented by an account of Williams' own assumptions and values because they have apparently influenced his adverse comments on Popper. The result is a book containing a confusing mixture of praise and criticism. If the criticisms were valid, Williams' high opinion of Popper would appear to be unwarranted. For the most part they are not valid, and one wonders how some of the more spectacular misreadings survived the screening of all the helpers he acknowledged. One also wonders what kind of impression this book will make on people who have not read Popper. Clearly the best thing that can happen will be for people to read some of the books and make up their own minds on the problems and issues raised by Williams. ... Read more |
35. Philosophy of Karl Popper: v. 1 (The Library of living philosophers) | |
Hardcover: 1323
Pages
(1977-04)
list price: US$30.00 -- used & new: US$377.46 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0875481418 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
36. World of Parmenides by Karl Popper | |
Paperback: 352
Pages
(2001-04)
list price: US$35.95 -- used & new: US$25.99 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0415237300 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (4)
Popper preincarnated
All knowledge is conjectural
Presocratics make a come back Still, the best part is how this era of thought fits into modern science.
The Presocratics -- the roots of rationality "Beyond the Search for Invariants" is the centerpiece of this book, an absolutely brilliant 65-page essay tracing the influence of Parmenides on modern science.You may have heard the quote from Alfred North Whitehead -- "The medieval world was an age of faith based on reason, while the modern world is an age of reason based on faith." (Science and the Modern World, 1925)Popper makes a convincing case that the metaphysical assumption underpinning modern science is much older than Christianity.Heraclitus said "you can never step in the same river twice."His was a metaphysics of constant flux.Parmenides, on the other hand, logically deduced that the world is a motionless block!A motionless block universe.It sounds absurd, but what Popper shows is that this metaphysical assumption has influenced great minds ever since, giving rise to the view that the universe is closed, and entirely deterministic.Only recently, with Darwin and Einstein, has Laplacean determinism given way to an open, indeterministic universe.Popper summarizes the essay like this in his 1993 preface -- "It tries to show that Heraclitus (everything changes) and Parmenides (nothing changes) have been reconciled and combined in modern science, which looks for Parmenidean invariance within Heraclitean flux." (viii) You might conclude that Popper is harshly judging Parmenides.On the contrary, he praises him as a great rationalist -- he simply disagrees with a powerful idea of Parmenides.There are 9 other essays here, and they are not all equally compelling, but the best are among the best of anything I've read in the philosophy of science! ... Read more |
37. Die offene Gesellschaft und ihre Feinde 1. Der Zauber Platons. by Karl R. Popper, Hubert Kiesewetter | |
Hardcover: 524
Pages
(2003-07-01)
-- used & new: US$108.70 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 3161478010 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
38. Karl Popper by Bryan Magee | |
Paperback: 127
Pages
(1986)
Isbn: 3162449480 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
39. Karl Popper: Philosophy and Problems (Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements) by Anthony O'Hear | |
Paperback: 304
Pages
(1996-03-29)
list price: US$41.99 -- used & new: US$20.39 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0521558158 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description |
40. Karl Popper (Arguments of the Philosophers) by Anthony O'Hear, Anthony Oohear | |
Paperback: 232
Pages
(1982-11)
list price: US$10.95 Isbn: 0710093349 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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