Realism and the Aim of Science: From the Postscript to The Logic of Scientific Discovery

by Karl Popper, W.W. Bartley, III (Editor)

Overview

Realism and the Aim of Science 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.

Realism and the Aim of Science is the first volume of the Postcript. Popper here formulates and explains his non-justificationist theory of knowledge: science aims at true explanatory theories, yet it can never prove, or justify, any theory to be true, not even if is a true theory. Science must continue to question and criticise all its theories, even those that happen to be true. Realism and the Aim of Science presents Popper’s mature statement on scientific knowledge and offers important insights into his thinking on problems of method within science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135858957
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/15/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Karl Popper, W.W. Bartley III

Table of Contents

Editor's Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction, 1982 REALISM AND THE AIM OF SCIENCE Preface, 1956 Part I: The Critical Approach Chapter I Induction Chapter II Demarcation Chapter III Metaphysics: Sense of Nonsense? Chapter IV Corroboration Part II: The Propensity Interpretation of Probability Chapter I Objective and Subjective Probabilities Chapter II Criticism of Probabilistic Induction Chapter III Remarks on the Objective Theories of Probability Index

Editorial Reviews

‘What distinguishes Popper from a great dull army of philosophers of science is that reading him is good for us’ Donald MacKay in Nature

'The whole work shares with the other volumes of the Postscript an immense capacity to stimulate and clarify the mind of even the least sympathetic reader.' - Donald MacKay, Nature

From the Publisher