Sir Karl Popper (1902 1994) is one of the most controversial and widely read philosophers of the 20th century. His influence has been enormous in the fields of epistemology, logic, metaphysics, methodology of science, the philosophy of physics and biology, political philosophy, and the social sciences, and his intellectual achievement has stimulated many scholars in a wide range of disciplines. These three volumes of previously unpublished essays, based on lectures given at the congress KARL POPPER 2002 held in Vienna to mark the centenary of Popper's birth, provide an up-to-date examination of many aspects of Popper's life and thought.
Volume I discusses a variety of topics in Popper's early intellectual history, and considers also some features of his remarkable influence outside philosophy. The second part of the volume contains papers that, from different political perspectives, tackle problems raised by Popper's principal contribution to political theory, democracy and community, The Open Society and Its Enemies.
Volume II deals especially with Popper's metaphysics and epistemology, including his proposal (critical rationalism) that it is through sharp criticism rather than through the provision of justification that our knowledge progresses. Several papers tackle the problem of the empirical basis, and offer decidedly different answers to some unresolved questions. The volume contains also a number of papers evaluating Popper's celebrated, but much contested, solution to Hume's problem of induction.
Volume III examines Popper's contribution to our understanding of logic, mathematics, physics, biology, and the social sciences, from economics to education. Among the topics covered are: verisimilitude, quantum and statistical physics, the propensity interpretation of probability, evolutionary epistemology, the so-called Positivimusstreit, Popper's critique of Marx, and his defence of the rationality principle as a component of all social explanations.
Contents: Volume I: Preface; Introduction: Karl Popper and philosophy in the 20th century, Hans Albert; Einleitung: Karl Popper und die Philosophie im 20. Jahrhundert, Hans Albert. Part 1 Popper's Life and Times: The historical roots of Popper's theory of the searchlight: a tribute to Otto Selz, Michel ter Hark; Hunting for roots of Viennese philosophy, John T. Blackmore; Which came first, the problem of induction or the problem of demarcation?, Troels Eggers Hansen; Karl Poppers erste Schritte in die Philosophie: Leonard Nelsons Paradoxien der Souveränität und Nelsons sowie Poppers Lösungsversuche, Hans-Joachim Dahms; The young Popper as a scholarly field: a comment on Dahms, Hansen, and ter Hark, Malachi Haim Hacohen; Popper and Hayek: who influenced whom?, Bruce Caldwell; A tour of Karl Popper's Vienna, Heidi König; Sir Karl Popper school: more than just a name?, Renate Wustinger; Popper in Iran, Ali Paya. Part 2 Values in a World of Facts: Popper and nationalism, Andrew Vincent; The enlightenment programme and Karl Popper, Nicholas Maxwell; Popper in the poison cupboards: the resonance of his political works in the former GDR, Rachael Knight; Can the Japanese learn to welcome criticism openly?, Kiichi Tachibana; Karl Popper's revisionist/realist theory of democracy, Geoffrey Stokes; Popper and communitarianism: ethical and political dimensions of democracy, Harald Stelzer; On Popper's concept of an open society, Ulrich Steinvorth; Towards a new theory of the closed society, John Wettersten; Can Popper's ideas enlighten postmodern technoscience?, Raphael Sassower; Karl Popper's 'third way'. Public policies for Europe and the west, Marcello Pera. Index.
Volume II: Preface. Part 3 Metaphysics and Epistemology: A: The Constitution of the World: Metaphysics and the growth of scientific knowledge, Joseph Agassi; The open society, metaphysical beliefs, and platonic sources of reason and rationality, Toby E. Huff; Karl R. Poppers Aktualität für die Kritik an fundamentalischen Weltanschauungen, Kurt Salamun; World 3: a critical defence, Ilkka Niiniluoto. B: Our Knowledge of the World: The nature of philosophical problems: Popper versus Wittgenstein, Herman Philipse; Gödel, Kuhn, Popper, and Feyerabend, Jonathan Seldin; Science wars. Remarks from a critical rationalist's point of view, Karsten Weber; On the idea of logical presuppositions of rational criticism, Jonas Nilsson; Constructing a comprehensively anti-justificationist position, Antoni Diller; Rationality without foundations, Stefano Gattei; Is the philosophy of Karl Popper anti-foundationalist?, Hubert Cambier; Conceptual and non-conceptual content and the empirical basis of science, Robert Nola; Sprachliche und empirische Aspekte des Basisproblems, Herbert Keuth; Test statements and experience, Gunnar Andersson; Basic statements versus protocols, Artur Koterski; Karl Popper and the empirical basis, Jeremy Shearmur; The epistemological foundation of methodological rules, Volker Gadenne; The lure of induction, Shereen Hassanein; The pragmatic problem of induction, Ingemar Nordin; Methodological objectivism and critical rationalist 'induction', Alfred Schramm; Artificial intelligence and Popper's solution to the problem of induction, Guglielmo Tamburrini. Index.
Volume III: Preface. Part 4 Science: A: Mathematics and Logic: Truthlikeness for theories on countable languages, Thomas Mormann; Popper's structuralist theory of logic, Peter Schroeder-Heister; Popper as a philosopher of mathematics, Eduard Glas. B: Physics: Popper and the logic of quantum mechanics, Maria Luisa Dalla Chiara & Roberto Giuntini; Popper on irreversibility and the arrow of time, Michael Esfeld; The arrow of time: experienced rather than explained, Daniela M. Bailer-Jones; A new look at Popper's pond, Mathias Frisch; Theoretical models and theories in physics: a rejoinder to Karl Popper's picture of science, Andrés Rivadulla; An instrumentalist criticism of Popper's propensities, Manuel Bächtold; Karl Popper's propensity interpretation of probability, Jacob Rosenthal; Single event probabilities in Popper's propensity account, Melis Erdur. C: Biology: The emergent character of life, Josep Corcó; Popper's Darwinism, Peter Munz; Making sense of knowledge in the light of evolution: Popper and the collapse of the modern epistemological project, Renan Springer de Freitas; Darwinism is the application of situational logic to the state of ignorance, David Miller. D: Social Sciences: Methodenstreit oder Ideologiedebatte? Ein Rückblick auf den 'Positivismusstreit', Evelyn Gröbl-Steinbach; Karl Popper and the reconstitution of the rationalist left, Steve Fuller; Popper and the rationality principle, Maurice Lagueux; Popper's conception of the rationality principle in the social sciences, Boudewijn de Bruin; Seven decades of economic methodology: a Popperian perspective, Lawrence A. Boland; Popper and Marx as frères ennemis, Allan Megill; Popper's conception of history seen from the Kantian tradition, Shijun Tong; Rationality and other cultures, Kei Yoshida; How to avoid giving unwanted answers to unasked questions: realizing Karl Popper's educational dream, Joanna Swann. Index.
About the Editor: Ian Jarvie is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Karl Milford is Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Vienna, Austria. David Miller was an assistant to Karl Popper in the 1960s, and worked closely with him for the next thirty years. He taught at the University of Warwick, UK, sand has held appointments also at universities in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. He has been Honorary Treasurer of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science, Secretary of the British Logic Colloquium, and Chair of the British National Committee for Logic, Methodology & Philosophy of Science. His publications include Critical Rationalism. A Restatement and Defence (1994),and many papers in logic, probability, and the philosophy of science. His anthology Popper Selections (originally A Pocket Popper) has been translated into Albanian, Chinese, Georgian, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Spanish, and Swedish.