Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Popper, Science and Rationality
- Popper and Reliabilism
- The Problem of the Empirical Basis
- ‘Revolution in Permanence’: Popper on Theory-Change in Science
- Popper's Contribution to the Philosophy of Probability
- Propensities and Indeterminism
- Popper on Determinism
- Popper and the Quantum Theory
- The Uses of Karl Popper
- Popper and Darwinism
- Popper and the Scepticism of Evolutionary Epistemology, or, What Were Human Beings Made For?
- Does Popper Explain Historical Explanation?
- The Grounds for Anti-Historicism
- What Use is Popper to a Politician?
- Ethical Foundations of Popper's Philosophy
- Works of Karl Popper Referred to in the Text
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
The Grounds for Anti-Historicism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Popper, Science and Rationality
- Popper and Reliabilism
- The Problem of the Empirical Basis
- ‘Revolution in Permanence’: Popper on Theory-Change in Science
- Popper's Contribution to the Philosophy of Probability
- Propensities and Indeterminism
- Popper on Determinism
- Popper and the Quantum Theory
- The Uses of Karl Popper
- Popper and Darwinism
- Popper and the Scepticism of Evolutionary Epistemology, or, What Were Human Beings Made For?
- Does Popper Explain Historical Explanation?
- The Grounds for Anti-Historicism
- What Use is Popper to a Politician?
- Ethical Foundations of Popper's Philosophy
- Works of Karl Popper Referred to in the Text
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In his seminal The Poverty of Historicism (hereafter PH) Sir Karl Popper deployed a number of arguments to prick the pretensions of those who thought that they were, or could come to be, in possession of knowledge of the (social) future. These ‘historicists’ assumed that they could lay bare the law of evolution of a society, and that their possession of knowledge of such a law justified (large-scale) political action which had the aim of removing obstacles to the progress of history. In arguing against historicism Popper was clearly motivated by his interest in removing the intellectual backing for such revolutionary political practice. My first reading of PH was in the company of people who were extremely dismissive of the anti-revolutionary message, and who tended to argue that if that was the conclusion of Popper's theoretical argument, then obviously the argument was flawed. Within their context, that of the implementation of apartheid policy in South Africa, there was much to be said for this attitude. There is no doubt that Popper's message was insufficiently contextualised, or rather that he did not signpost very clearly whether he intended the anti-revolutionary political prescription to have limited or universal application. In this paper I want to reconsider some of these issues, particularly whether the truth of anti-historicism, in the sense intended by Popper, has such conservative consequences for political action. In so doing I wish to proceed in the best Popperian tradition by testing the arguments for ‘anti-historicism’ against the strongest case that can be made for historicism.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Karl PopperPhilosophy and Problems, pp. 241 - 258Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996