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Dr. Richmond's book examines deftly the aesthetic theory of leading art historian and critic, Sir Ernst Gombrich. Though in the psychology of art and in related matters Gombrich is an avowed follower the rationalist philosophy of science of Sir Karl Popper, in aesthetics proper he follows ideas first propounded in the irrationalist philosophy of science of Michael Polanyi. Dr. Richmond presents succinctly the ideas of these three great thinkers and finds here an unexpected irrationalist streak in the rationalistic works of Gombrich. (Joseph Agassi)
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Both a Popper biography and an autobiography, Agassi's A Philosopher's Apprentice tells the riveting story of his intellectual formation in 1950s London, a young brilliant philosopher struggling with an intellectual giant - father, mentor, and rival, all at the same time. His subsequent rebellion and declaration of independence leads to a painful break, never to be completely healed.No other writer has Agassi's psychological insight into Popper, and no other book captures like this one the intellectual excitement around the Popper circle in the 1950s and the struggles of the 1960s and 1970s -personal, academic, political, all important philosophically. Agassi's Popper- whether one agrees with it or not - is an enormous contribution to scholarship.This second revised edition includes also Popper's and Agassi's last correspondence and, in a postscript it shows Agassi leafing through Popper's archives, reaching a sort of reconciliation, an appropriate ending to the drama.A must read. Malachi Hacohen, Duke University ... Read more

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A courageous account of Agassi's studies with Popper
Joseph Agassi, The Philosopher's Apprentice:In Karl Popper's Workshop.Series in the Philosophy of Karl R. Popper, Volume V.Edited by Kurt Salamun.Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam and Atlanta GA, 1993. xx + 252 pp. -- Agassi describes himself as "the foremost exponent and leading critic"(p. ix) of his teacher, Sir Karl Popper, who, he claims, is "the greatest philosopher of the mid-century" (p. xiv).Thisaccount of his studies under Popper applies the idea that criticism is an expression of respect, so forcefully preached by Popper, and notes Popper's tragic failure both as teacher and as a leader.Agassi does not hold much back, not even the charges of treason voiced by insiders provoked by the circulation of earlier drafts of this work. To discourage those who might dismiss this work as mere gossip, we may observe the rule proposed herein:discuss a book's importance before considering whether its message is true (p. 182). Agassi succeeds in applying the idea, so forcefully preached by Popper, that criticism expresses respect.And we learn here of Popper's failure to practice his own teachings, of Agassi's loss due to a repeated failure to communicate, and the public's loss of Popper's intellectual leadership.The importance of this work is in the unblinking courage with which it presents this record of failures. In addition to the "melancholy" (p. ix) story, the "wild" (p. xi) narrative structure of this book, which is sometimes chronological, sometimes thematic and always open to an interesting digression, makes it hard to summarize or characterize.It opens thus:Popper's (Einsteinian) view of science dispenses with the authority of science and with the demand to defend views.Why then do scientists and philosophers -- including Popper -- continue this defense?The problem receives its face from embarrassingly detailed descriptions of the tensions between Popper and his associates, the harshness of their personal dealings, their defensiveness and their intrigues.As the story unfolds we see Popper's unbecoming sides, his cult of hard work, his maudlin Christianity and his anti-semitism(p. 25), and his resentment of willful distortions and dishonest dismissals.The estrangement between Agassi and Popper haunts this book. Gratitude, admiration and discipleship do not overwhelm his autonomy, nor do they mute his criticism.He views Popper's thought as the best expression of the morality of critical autonomy.Yet his efforts to secure his autonomy create the rift never to be mended.Indeed the most crucial source of the rift is Popper's refusal to discuss ethics.Agassi criticizes Popper's retreat from traditional positivism as "not sufficiently open" and as concealed under his constant (and just) disavowal of "logical" positivism (p. 173).This conduct is at variance with his own strong condemnation of "surreptitious" changes of opinion (p. 174). When Agassi criticized Popper's theory of corroboration,he generously conceded in a footnote that here Agassi may be right, as he may have correctly detected in Popper a "whiff of inductivism" (p. 6). This, he suggested, should satisfy Agassi's desire for recognition and silence his further criticism.Agassi, on his part, rejects the acknowledgment as far too generous (p. 7). How could Popper, the philosopher of critical rationalism, be so apparently closed to criticism? Agassi' s answer is the central lesson here: "... no one can judge how open to criticism one is and no one can declare adequate one's acceptance of a criticism and one's subsequent alteration of an opinion" (p. 69).One can never be one's own judge.Popper's personal failures should be seen as a shortcoming not of the critical standards he espoused but of the view of oneself as able to judge oneself in one's sincere efforts to be severe with oneself. Popper's life in the intellectual community, his reputation there and its sources are discussed in a series of vignettes that concern some of themost important figures in mid-century philosophy:Wittgenstein, Ayer, Carnap, Isaiah Berlin, Bar-Hillel, Bartley, Lakatos and more.Carnap and Lakatos emerge as villains.The latter was an ambitious and treacherous schemer who, appealing to Popper's vanity and defensiveness, isolated and manipulated him.Carnap's distorted version of Popper's views became canonic for a generation and blocked their public exposure.His Testability and Meaning(1936) identifies Popper's view as concerning not science but its language.The difference is this:the negation of a scientific theory is not scientific, yet the negation of a sentence is a sentence.So while science does not include the negation of the theories that it includes, any language does.Confusing the two leads to confusing refutation with verification:the refutation of a theory is confused with the verification of its negation.Thus verifiabilityand refutability, Carnap's view of science and Popper's, would appear symmetrical.The novelty and significance of Popper's vision are thus lost. In the final chapter we find an insightful critique of Popper's theory of leadership and a discussion of Popper's mistreatment at the hands of the philosophical leadership(p. 235).The epilogue is a call for the "grass root revolution in philosophy" (p. 246) implicit in Popper's views.This explains the resistance to them:leaders tend to be conservative.Yet "the present global crises which threaten our very survival" (p. 244) and the inability of philosophy to "join the action" (ibid. )make the revolution imperative.Agassi suggests that discussion of the issues raised in this volume, particularly among students, is a contribution to this revolution.Being myself a former student of his, I wishedto test his suggestion.I did, and I agree.I hope this important book is widely read and discussed, and that we begin an open debate onthe criteria of what is serious philosophy.This would indeed be the start of a philosophical revolution. -- Michael Chiariello, St. Bonaventure University. ... 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Dr Chaudhury is concerned to defend what is responsible and hopeful in contemporary ecological thinking, but to avoid the trap of denying that any positive contribution can be made by western science and technology. Critical rationalists do not need to agree with her suggestions and recommendations in order to welcome her positioning of environmental issues alongside the traditional human and political debates about freedom. The Indian perspective that informs this book is particularly impressive and interesting.David Miller (University of Warwick)Professor Mahasweta Chaudhury is Professor for Philosophy at Calcutta University in India. In the late sixties she studied at the London School of Economics under Karl Popper, John Watkins, Alan Musgrave and Imre Lakatos. ... Read more

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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, which originate in 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 3 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 Positivismusstreit, Popper's critique of Marx, and his defence of the rationality principle as a component of all social explanations. ... Read more

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Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Karl Popper, Leonard Bernstein, Václav Havel, Konrad Lorenz, Erwin Schrödinger, Lise Meitner, Heinrich Harrer, Manfred Eigen, Carl Zuckmayer, Walter Jens, Werner Berg, Peter Sloterdijk, Adolf Butenandt, Ernst Gombrich, Christian Ludwig Attersee, Karl Böhm, Victor Franz Hess, Richard Kuhn, Friedrich August von Hayek, Herbert von Karajan, Elias Canetti, Theodor Litt, Erika Mitterer, Andreas Alföldi, Hans Kelsen, Friedrich Torberg, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, György Ligeti, Hans Hollein, Krzysztof Penderecki, Henry Moore, Viktor Frankl, Karl von Frisch, Gertrud Fussenegger, Bruno Ganz, Lorenz Böhler, Friederike Mayröcker, Eric Kandel, Joseph Marx, Ernst Jandl, Ludwig von Mises, Hans Hass, Otto Loewi, Horst Stein, Wilma Lipp, Erich Feigl, Max Kaser, Robert Stolz, H. C. Artmann, Ernst Lothar, Pierre Boulez, Carlos Kleiber, Fritz Schachermeyr, Clemens Holzmeister, Egon Wellesz, Ernst Krenek, Maria Lassnig, Christa Ludwig, Eugen Biser, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Karl Heinrich Waggerl, Alfred Kubin, Horst Dreier, Fritz Feigl, Anton Zeilinger, Christine Busta, Karl Acham, Wolfgang Schadewaldt, Otto Neugebauer, Kurt Mothes, Klaus Wolff, Albert Paris Gütersloh, Richard Kriesche, Johannes Messner, Felix Braun, Emil Staiger, Gottfried von Einem, Gottfried Schatz, Theo Mayer-Maly, György Kurtág, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, Hermann F. Mark, Roland Rainer, Friedrich Cerha, Jacqueline de Romilly, Marcel Rubin, Walter Thirring, Kurt Schwertsik, Franz Karl Ginzkey, Leopold Vietoris, Harry Seidler, Victor Weisskopf, Christian Meier, Walter Pichler, Leo Santifaller, Ernst Schönwiese, Max Mell, Emil Stojanow, Heinrich Appelt, Johannes Fehring, Hans Tuppy, Elliott Lieb, Feodor Lynen, Peter Schuster, Heinrich Fichtenau, Kurt...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=2696 ... Read more

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Volume 14 in the "Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers" series focuses on Karl Popper, an important and controversial thinker of the 20th century. Karl Popper is best known for his contributions to the philosophy of science and the history of ideas. Elements of Popper's thought were clearly libertarian or conservative in character. His politics, however, were recognisably social democratic. His ideal of an open society was not a free market utopia, but a political community in which diverse people engaged with one another in constructive dialogue to seek political solutions to common problems. If Popper made important and enduring contributions to the libertarian and conservative traditions, it would be a mistake to uncritically label him a conservative or libertarian. Rather, Popper was a scholar who contributed to a range of different fields without being shackled to one particular perspective or approach. It is in this context that we should understand Popper's contribution to libertarian and conservative thought."Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers" provides comprehensive accounts of the works of seminal conservative thinkers from a variety of periods, disciplines, and traditions - the first series of its kind. Even the selection of thinkers adds another aspect to conservative thinking, including not only theorists but also writers and practitioners. The series comprises twenty volumes, each including an intellectual biography, historical context, critical exposition of the thinker's work, reception and influence, contemporary relevance, bibliography including references to electronic resources, and an index. ... Read more