In Search of a Better World: Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years

by Popper,Karl

• ISBN13: 9780415135481
• ISBN10: 0415135486
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1995-12-20
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

'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.

Table of Contents

A summary by way of a preface	vii
Translator's acknowledgements	x
Part I On knowledge
Knowledge and the shaping of reality: the search for a better world	3	(27)
On knowledge and ignorance	30	(14)
On the so-called sources of knowledge	44	(8)
Science and criticism	52	(12)
The logic of the social sciences	64	(18)
Against big words (A letter not originally intended for publication)	82	(17)
Part II On history
Books and thoughts: Europe's first publication	99	(18)
Appendix: On a little-known chapter of Mediterranean history	107	(10)
On culture clash	117	(9)
Immanuel Kant: the philosopher of the Enlightenment (A lecture to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Kant's death)	126	(11)
Emancipation through knowledge	137	(14)
Public opinion and liberal principles	151	(10)
An Objective theory of historical understanding	161	(12)
Part III Von den Neuesten ... zusammengestohlen aus Verschiedenem, Diesem und Jenen*
How I see philosophy (Stolen from Fritz Waismann and from one of the first men to land on the moon)	173	(15)
Toleration and intellectual responsibility (Stolen from Xenophanes and from Voltaire)	188	(16)
What does the West believe in? (Stolen from the author of the Open Society)	204	(19)
Creative self-criticism in science and art (Stolen from Beethoven's sketch books)	223	(10)
Appendix	233	(3)
Name index	236	(5)
Subject index	241