Sunday, November 8, 2020

Review of Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach by Karl Popper

This review was written by Eugene Kernes

Book can be found in:
Genre = Philosophy, Epistemology

Elaborate Description

Great book that explains and sets the conditions for the growth of knowledge. Popper describes how every theory can be proven false, which is true given certain conditions. Popper does report that it is not in search of the prefect theory which cannot be proven wrong, but in search of a better theory that knowledge grows. Popper's examination of verisimilitude is very useful to know. Popper mentioned that clarity is really important to the point of saying that "lack of clarity is a sin, and pretentiousness is a crime", well, unfortunately Popper is not clear in all his writing. Clarity in everything is not possible considering everyone has different values for clarity. It might be that clarity requires prior knowledge (or rather training) in Popper's field which would clear up much of his arguments. The book is well written in most places.


Book Details

Edition ISBN:  9780198750246
Pages to read:   375
Publication:     1979
1st Edition:      1972
Format:            Paperback

Ratings out of 5:
Readability    3
Content          4
Overall           4