Friday, July 3, 2020

Karl Popper and the two faces of common sense... or why one should not apologize for being a philosopher

Karl Popper:
My excuse is this.  We all have our philosophies, whether or not we are aware of this fact, and our philosophies are not worth very much.  But the impact of our philosophies upon our actions and our lives is often devastating.  This make it necessary to try to improve our philosophies by criticism.  This is the only apology for the continued existence of philosophy which I am able to offer.
 via Two Faces of Common Sense; An Argument for Commonsense Realism and Against the commonsense Theory of Knowledge.

For more on Karl Popper check out Karl Popper on Wikipedia.
Also Karl Popper (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

I've been reading a used copy of his Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach from Oxford Press.  Here are a few more choice quotes from Popper.  I've been thinking about his place in the long tradition of liberty and freedom that we are going to be celebrating tomorrow here in America.  And I have yet to spend the time to really flesh out my own thoughts on this.

And do check out the Open Society Foundation.  One of his children so to speak.

I'm wanting to read some more Berlin at the moment.  Its almost overwhelming to try to keep up.  For now I'm heading with the wife for home improvement supplies, because happy wife happy life (book nerds of the world unite! We have nothing to lose but our study).

In the meantime somebody write something really smart about Karl Popper that I have yet to consider.  And if you see anything online worth checking out and sharing with others about Popper (good/bad/or ugly--as long as its constructive and helpful for understanding his place in intellectual history) please send it my way!


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