Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography

Routledge Classics has done us all - fans of clear thinking, clear writing and great literature - a real service by re-releasing Karl Popper's intellectual biography "An Unended Quest". In additiion to offering informative accounts of how he came about his greatest theories, he gives us entertaining life stories as well. As we would expect from Popper, this book is set up similar to his problem solving methodology: (P1)- (TT)-(EE)-(P2). For those unfamiliar, this stands for problem 1, tentative theory, error elimination, problem 2 - and this is how Popper, at least, according to his biography, led his life. A problem would arise, he'd think about it enough to offer a best conjecture, go about watching its results (recieving criticism from others as well as himself, setting aside a refuted theory if necessary) and this would invariably lead to new and more challenging problems. It is party because of this ongoing method that Popper descrbes himself as "the happiest philosopher I ever met." The first half of the book is especially thrilling. Popper shifts from a chapter relating personal events and development with "digression" chapters relating how these personal events led to theories, ideas and problems to be solved. Of note to me, with a B.A. in music, were the chapters exploring Poppers love for 'classical' music. Especially of suprise here was that he has many of the same tastes and reasons for them as I and he discusses many of those ideas in what could be the most exciting 'digression' in the book. The second half of the book concentrates more on ideas and lesson events. This was the period where Popper, although still looked at as unconventional, was a bit more accepted. This period saw him write "The Open Society and It's Enemies", "Poverty of Historicism", and "Conjectures and Refutations". As most of this is about explaining his ideas, not the events therefrom, those familiar with Popper's writings may get a bit bored here. Still, with prose as crystal-clear and exciting as Popper's, nobody - from the novice to the professional philosopher - will want to miss a paragraph!

Karl Popper is famous for seemingly making the only lasting philosophic contribution to epistemology. His dismantling of Empiricism and description of "How we create objective knowledge" is a monumental contribution to philosophy. The autobiography is a good read that highlights the growth of his thinking. It is an 'intellectual autobiography" rather than a historical biography or memoir. Highly recommended to folks interested in epistemology and the intellectual life of great thinkers.

Cancel order. Have hard copy.

The product, "Unending Quest," is in good condition, and arrived on time.The author of the autobiography, Popper, has a world wide reputation as a"Philosopher" of Science, but in my opinion he is one of these "celebrity"Sacred Cows who comments but does not actually work in the field itself.For example, I prefer to read the popular explanatory works of men actuallyworking in the scientific field like Feynman, Gramow, or Heisenberg thanthe "analysis" of a sideline "observer."

Requires a lot of concentration but it is worth the effort.

Karl Popper was arguably one of the finest minds of the 20th century.Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography is a lucid and elegant summary of his thinking.It should be read by everyone who wishes to engage in the continuous critical thinking that everyone should do - but many people seem to lack the desire to do.

This is a good bood about Popper, who was an important figure in the philosophy of science twists and turns.

"Unended Quest" provides a lucid summary of the broad themes of Popper's work along with some background he has provided of his life. I don't think one can overstate the contribution Popper made to the theory of knowledge, even if many texts seem to have virtually ignored his work. The real pity is that Popper has been repeatedly quoted out of context, it would be refreshing if criticism was based on his writings rather than second-hand interpretations.I personally find this book exciting and I often revisit it. I would recommend his "All Life is Problem Solving" as a follow up for those who have limited familiarity with Popper, in particular the essay "Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Knowledge" which was written late in his life and is brilliant in its overarching synthesis. It is a pity that Richard Dawkins has not absorbed more of Popper's way of talking about evolution as it might temper his positivist tendencies and make his rebuttal of intelligent design and creationism more rigorous and less dogmatic and perhaps more effective.Popper rejected the positivist belief that what elevates science over pseudoscience is the "scientific method" of finding true, secure, justifiable knowledge. Instead better theories are those with the greater content and the greater explanatory power (both relative to the problems we are trying to solve). If we cannot justify a theory - that is, justify our belief in its truth - we can explain our preference for one theory over another. It follows that we must distinguish achievements or solutions in the objective sense from subjective feelings of achievement, or of knowing, or of belief.All Life is Problem SolvingReason and Imagination (Critical Rationalist Papers)

.２０世紀を代表する哲学者・科学思想家　Sir Karl Raimund Popper　（ 1902～1994 ）の自叙伝である。表題は 「 終結なき探究 」、あるいは 意訳すれば、「 見果てぬ夢 」 である。第一次大戦前のオーストリアに生を受け、社会派弁護士の父親の影響を受けつつ、社会科学、哲学、数学、物理学等に目覚めてゆく青年期から、ナチスの迫害から逃れるためニュージーランドに夫妻で渡り、「科学的発見の論理」・「開かれた社会とその論敵」・「歴史主義の貧困」等の執筆、出版の経緯等が、みずみずしい言葉で語られる。Popper 自身の母国語は、当然ドイツ語なのであるが、流暢な英語による著述の見事さは今更ながら、感嘆に値する。大変読みやすい内容・分量であり、多くの Popperian にとっての must read item 、即ち” 必読書 ” とも言うべき著作である。

Exactly what I needed for coins