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Article: Karl Popper, critical rationalist.(modern philosopher)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- December 25, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"IT'S NOT what people don't know that gets them into trouble," an American humorist once said, "it's what people know that ain't so."
Perhaps the most difficult problem in the history of philosophy has been: How do we know that what we know is so? Sir Karl Popper's startling solution to that problem (we don't) made him, at the time of his death last year at 92, the most influential recent philosopher in the world -- perhaps the most influential since Kant. His work was mainly in two cognate branches of philosophy: epistemology (the theory of knowledge) and the philosophy of science. Despite its theoretical character, Popper's work profoundly affected how we think not ...