Popper: The Great Philosophers

by Frederic Raphael

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Biography

64 pages, Paperback

First published September 14, 2011

About the author

Writer, critic and broadcaster, Frederic Raphael was educated at Charterhouse School and at St John's College, Cambridge. He has written several screenplays and fifteen novels. His The Glittering Prizes was one of the major British and American television successes of the 1970s.

Reviews

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crystal clear précis by Frederic Raphael. Explains and critically discusses Popper's ideas in the context of personal history, political history and his philosophical contemporaries and predecessors.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Popper’s battle against scientism and utopianism is clearly illustrated by the author. But then what is to be done? Gradual change is Popper’s offered prescription. Yet, as the author points out, is it feasible under the prevailing circumstances? If the answer was likely no when this book was written, it is even less now that all the powers arrayed against real change and not its simulacrum have had a further two decades to entrench and fortify.

[Anderson Paz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boa introdução à crítica de Popper ao historicismo. “A miséria do historicismo” é acreditar que existem leis de desenvolvimento da história com tendências absolutas conhecíveis por alguns. A partir disso, Popper desenvolveu, em “A sociedade aberta...”, uma crítica devastadora a Hegel e Marx que, com seus historicismos idealista e materialista, desenvolveram reflexões capazes de justificar as piores formas de totalitarismo.

[Kaleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this quick read on Karl Popper, I really enjoy these little books in the Great Philosopher Series. Gives me a good primer and allows me to determine if I want to read more. Definitely worth the read.

[Lucky Phoumala · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Reuben Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not clearly enough written for an introduction.

[Chris Comis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great series, especially for those who don't have the time (or desire) to read the really big and complicated books on these philosophers. These are also a good mix of philosophical ideas and biographical context.

Popper was kind of brilliantly insane. His push for "falsification" with regards to the scientific method was helpful in some ways, and not so helpful in others. He was also one of the members of the so-called Vienna Circle, so there are some issues that need to be looked out for there. He was not necessarily opposed to metaphysics and theology, either. But he did come down pretty hard on those scientists who try and push any form of "scientism." Basically, Popper wanted to raise (not lower) the bar for what could be considered as scientific proof. He wanted to make it harder for scientists to make totalizing claims about the world. I think that in spite of his own humanistic presuppositions, he ended up making the chairs of humanistic science much harder for certain scientific theories, like Darwinian evolution, to sit down in, let alone be comfortable in.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book lived up to my expectations. I found it to be a clear presentation of Popper's critique of historicism and its 19th and 20th century offspring, Marxism. Although an opponent of anyone who advocates a fundamental root and branch social change or radical change brought about by the forces of history, he was not a conservative as we understand the term in 2012. He was not an apologist for the status quo but a proponent of more gradual change, change whose effects can be measured and altered if shown to be ineffective.