Philosophy and the Real World - An Introduction to Karl Popper - Bryan Magee.pdf

Human knowledge is a special case of animal knowledge. From the amoeba to Einstein, learning takes the same course: it starts from a problem caused by the clash between expectations and experience, proceeds to a proposed solution, and then to the testing of that solution. With the emergence of science, failure need no longer be fatal: we can kill off our theories, instead of being killed off ourselves.

Popper's evolutionary and objectivist view of the growth of knowledge is expounded clearly and persuasively by his close friend, Bryan Magee. Popper himself has endorsed this account of his views as accurate.

Magee is well-known in Britain as a writer, former Member of Parliament, and TV popularizer of philosophy. He is Senior Research Fellow in the History of Ideas at London University. His books include The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, Aspects of Wagner, The Democratic Revolution, and Men of Ideas.

"...an absolutely faithful account of Popper's ideas, presented in delightfully crystalline prose." -Anthony Quinton