Karl Popper emerged as one of the most influential theorists and leading philosophers, commanding international audiences with his intellectual rigor. His work navigated a vast landscape of philosophical problems, spanning political theory, scientific method, and evolutionary thought. Popper notably challenged established orthodoxies such as logical positivism and Marxism, arguing that scientific theories are ultimately refutable rather than verifiable. He championed a critical ethos, emphasizing the acceptance of our ignorance and the vital importance of open debate in the pursuit of truth.
With Two Talks on Freedom and the Democratic State
The book features interviews with philosopher Karl Popper, conducted by Italian journalist Giancarlo Bosetti, highlighting Popper's conviction that philosophers must engage in political discourse. It emphasizes the importance of active participation in societal issues and serves as a cautionary message against complacency in contemporary times.
In this long-awaited volume, Jeremy Shearmur collects the most important writings Popper made in the years after The Open Society was first published. Many are published here for the first time.
Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics is one of the three volumes of Karl Popper's Postscript to the Logic of scientific Discovery . The Postscript is the culmination of Popper's work in the philosophy of physics and a new famous attack on subjectivist approaches to philosophy of science.
"In the course of a life of ninety years Sir Karl can look back on positive changes in the world - the vast reductions in mass poverty, the liberalization of penal systems, the defeat of dictatorships. The search for a better world is never complete, but in spite of two world wars and a long and dangerous cold war, it was not in vain." "The essays and lectures collected in this book chart many familiar as well as some less known aspects of Sir Karl's thinking - from his interest in the birth of scientific speculation in classical Greece to the destructive effects on the intellect of totalitarianism in twentieth-century states. His discussions range over problems of politics, the history of philosophy and great figures of the Enlightenment such as Voltaire and Kant, and the relation of science and art (in an address given at the 1979 Salzburg festival). The book offers important new insights into the thought of one of the greatest of living philosophers, and into the role of science in our civilization."--Jacket
One of the most controversial of twentieth-century philosophers, especially for his devastating criticisms of Plato and Marx and for his uncompromising rejection of inductive reasoning, Sir Karl Popper relentlessly challenged both the authority and the appeal to authority of the most fashionable philosophies of our time. His own philosophy of critical rationalism is distinctive in its emphasis on the way in which we learn through the making and correcting of mistakes-on the role played by imagination in proposing new possibilities, and by reason in exposing and eliminating the errors among them. David Miller, once Popper's research assistant and now a leading expositor and critic of his work, has chosen thirty excerpts from Popper's non-technical writings in the theory of knowledge, the philosophy of science, metaphysics, and social philosophy. Together they illustrate the breadth, profundity, and originality of Sir Karl's contribution to human learning.
Examining the philosophies of Plato, Hegel, and Marx, this influential work critiques centrally planned political systems and highlights the risks they pose to democracy. Written during World War II, it combines accessible language with profound insights, making complex philosophical ideas understandable. Popper's defense of open societies remains relevant amidst the rise of totalitarianism, ensuring its significance for contemporary readers. This volume is the second part of a two-volume series, continuing the exploration of these critical themes.
Conjectures and Refutations is one of Karl Popper's most wide-ranging and popular works, notable not only for its acute insight into the way scientific knowledge grows, but also for applying those insights to politics and to history. It provides one of the clearest and most accessible statements of the fundamental idea that guided his work: not only our knowledge, but our aims and our standards, grow through an unending process of trial and error.
This unique collection of essays not only elucidates the complexity of ancient Greek thought but also reveals Popper's engagement with Presocratic philosophy and the influence of Parmenides. schovat popis
Popper was born in 1902 to a Viennese family of Jewish origin. He taught in Austria until 1937, when he emigrated to New Zealand in anticipation of the Nazi annexation of Austria the following year, and he settled in England in 1949. Before the annexation, Popper had written mainly about the philosophy of science, but from 1938 until the end of the Second World War he focused his energies on political philosophy, seeking to diagnose the intellectual origins of German and Soviet totalitarianism. The Open Society and Its Enemies was the result. In the book, Popper condemned Plato, Marx, and Hegel as "holists" and "historicists"--a holist, according to Popper, believes that individuals are formed entirely by their social groups; historicists believe that social groups evolve according to internal principles that it is the intellectual's task to uncover. Popper, by contrast, held that social affairs are unpredictable, and argued vehemently against social engineering. He also sought to shift the focus of political philosophy away from questions about who ought to rule toward questions about how to minimize the damage done by the powerful. The book was an immediate sensation, and--though it has long been criticized for its portrayals of Plato, Marx, and Hegel--it has remained a landmark on the left and right alike for its defense of freedom and the spirit of critical inquiry.
First published in 1945 and never out of print, this is the second volume of one of the most famous and influential works of the twentieth century.
