In Search of a Better World Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years Karl Popper 9781138174986 Books
Download As PDF : In Search of a Better World Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years Karl Popper 9781138174986 Books
'I want to begin by declaring that I regard scientific knowledge as the most important kind of knowledge we have', writes Sir Karl Popper in the opening essay of this book, which collects his meditations on the real improvements science has wrought in society, in politics and in the arts in the course of the twentieth century. His subjects range from the beginnings of scientific speculation in classical Greece to the destructive effects of twentieth century totalitarianism, from major figures of the Enlightenment such as Kant and Voltaire to the role of science and self-criticism in the arts. The essays offer striking new insights into the mind of one of the greatest twentieth century philosophers.
In Search of a Better World Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years Karl Popper 9781138174986 Books
I bought this book since it was recommended as a good introduction to Popper's work and ideas. I have no pretensions to understanding philosophy beyond a few college-level courses and some of my own reading.As a more-or-less casual reader I was particularly struck at how good Popper is at explaining his ideas. As I read further, I understood. I very much liked his ideas about the obligation of specialists and the educated to simplify and not to obfuscate. I found his consciously common sense prose had much more claim to understanding the responsibility of intellectuals than I found in (for instance) the Chomsky essay on the same theme. I'm sure that some credit for the clarity should go to the translator, Laura J. Bennett. I haven't read the original, but this was about as clean of a translation as I have found.
There was a lot to interest and inspire. The emphasis on rational criticism and the nature of knowledge made intuitive sense. I struggled harder with his issues with relativism, but found his arguments engaging and ultimately quite convincing.
I don't really feel smart enough to do anything except damn this book with faint praise, sorry.
Very much recommended. Seems to me something for nearly anyone. Any ideas where to do next with Popper, bearing in mind my (non) background?
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In Search of a Better World Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years Karl Popper 9781138174986 Books Reviews
Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics, best-known as a philosopher of science and of political philosophy. He wrote a number of books, such as The Logic of Scientific Discovery,The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 1 The Spell of Plato,The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 2 Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath,Unended Quest An Intellectual Autobiography,Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem In Defence of Interaction,The Myth of the Framework In Defence of Science and Rationality,The Open Universe An Argument for Indeterminism From the Postscript to The Logic of Scientific Discovery, etc.
He wrote at the end of the Preface to this 1989 book, “I do not want to end this preface without saying something about the success of the search for a better world during the eighty-seven years of my life, a time of two senseless world wars and of criminal dictatorships. In spite of everything, and although we have had to many failures, we, the citizens of the western democracies, live in a social order which is better … and more just than any other in recorded history. Further improvements are of the greatest urgency… I would like to mention briefly two things that we have improved. The most important one is that the terrible mass poverty which still existed in my childhood and in my youth has now disappeared… Some may object that there are people in our society who are too rich. But why should that bother us, if there are sufficient resources---and the good will---to struggle against poverty and other avoidable suffering? The second is our reform of the criminal law… [we] decided that we ourselves… would rather suffer the effects of crime, corruption murder, espionage and terrorism, than take the very questionable step of trying to eradicate these things by means of violence, and to run the risk of turning innocent people into victims.”
He states, “Relativism is one of the many crimes committed by intellectuals. It is a betrayal of reason and humanity. I suppose that the alleged relativity of truth defended by some philosophers results from mixing-up the notions of truth and certainty; that is, of more or less reliability. Certainty is relative also in the sense that it always depends on what is at stake. So I think that what happens here is a confusion of truth and certainty, in some cases can be shown quite clearly.” (Pg. 5)
He explains, “Despite my admiration for scientific knowledge, I am not an adherent of scientism. For scientism dogmatically asserts the authority of scientific knowledge; whereas I do not believe in any authority and have always resisted dogmatism; and I continue to resist it, especially in science. I am opposed to the thesis that the scientist must believe in his theory… I especially do not believe in belief in science. I believe at most that belief has a place in ethics, and even here only in a few instances. I believe, for example, that objective truth is a value… and that cruelty is the greatest evil.” (Pg. 6)
He critiques Rudolf Carnap and the Vienna Circle [i.e., Logical Positivism] “My main reason is that these questions [posted by Carnap, et al.] presuppose an authoritarian attitude to the problem of human knowledge. They presuppose that our assertions are reliable if, and only if, we can appeal to the authority of SOURCES of knowledge and in particular to OBSERVATIONS.” (Pg. 45)
He says, “The so-called objectivity of science lies in the objectivity of the critical method; that is, above all, in the fact that no theory is exempt from criticism, and further, that the logical instrument of criticism---the logical contradiction---is objective.” (Pg. 67) Later, he adds, “It is completely erroneous to assume that the objectivity of a science depends upon the objectivity of the scientist. And it is completely erroneous to believe that the attitude of the natural scientist is more objective than that of the social scientist.” (Pg. 72)
He clarifies, “In 1934 I published my book ‘The Logic of Scientific Discovery.’ This was a criticism of positivism. But … the leaders of the Vienna Circle, were so tolerant that they accepted the book, for a series they were editing. One result of this tolerance was that everyone who just glanced at the book took me for a positivist. This resulted in the widely believed myth of Popper the positivist… Nevertheless, my position would not be more different from positivism.” (Pg. 89)
He summarizes his thoughts about history “My first thesis is… that we should refuse to speak of the meaning of history in the sense of something concealed in it, or of a moral lesson hidden in the divine tragedy of history, or in the sense of some evolutionary laws of history, or of some other meaning… I contend that there is no hidden meaning in history, and that those historians and philosophers who believe they have discovered one are deceiving themselves (and others). My second thesis… I believe that we ourselves can try to give a meaning to political history---or rather a plurality of meanings; meanings that are feasible for, and worthy of, human beings… my third thesis is that we can learn from history that the attempt to give history an ethical meaning, or to set ourselves up as modest ethical reformers, need not be vain…” (Pg. 139)
He asserts, “The state is a necessary evil its powers are not to be multiplied beyond what is necessary.” (Pg. 155)
He observes of Behaviorism” “Although it extols observation, it not only flies in the face of all human experience, but it also tries to derive from its theories an ethically horrible theory---the theory of conditioning; although no ethical theory is, in fact, derivable from human nature… It is to be hoped that this [theory], based upon an uncritical acceptance of the commonsense theory of knowledge whose untenability I have tried to show, will one day lost its influence.” (Pg. 184)
He notes, “I do not, of course, want to associate myself with [Oswald] Spengler, whom I regard not only as a false prophet of and alleged decline, but also as a symptom of a real decline, even though this is not a decline of the West; what his prophecies actually indicate is the decline of the intellectual conscience of many western thinkers.” (Pg. 204)
This is an excellent summation of many of Popper’s positions, and will be of great interest to anyone studying his philosophy.
I bought this book since it was recommended as a good introduction to Popper's work and ideas. I have no pretensions to understanding philosophy beyond a few college-level courses and some of my own reading.
As a more-or-less casual reader I was particularly struck at how good Popper is at explaining his ideas. As I read further, I understood. I very much liked his ideas about the obligation of specialists and the educated to simplify and not to obfuscate. I found his consciously common sense prose had much more claim to understanding the responsibility of intellectuals than I found in (for instance) the Chomsky essay on the same theme. I'm sure that some credit for the clarity should go to the translator, Laura J. Bennett. I haven't read the original, but this was about as clean of a translation as I have found.
There was a lot to interest and inspire. The emphasis on rational criticism and the nature of knowledge made intuitive sense. I struggled harder with his issues with relativism, but found his arguments engaging and ultimately quite convincing.
I don't really feel smart enough to do anything except damn this book with faint praise, sorry.
Very much recommended. Seems to me something for nearly anyone. Any ideas where to do next with Popper, bearing in mind my (non) background?
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