Buy new:
$37.13
List Price: $51.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Save: $14.86 (29%)
FREE Returns
FREE delivery Wednesday, May 1. Order within 17 hrs 39 mins
In Stock
$$37.13 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$37.13
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Karl Raimund Popper
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

In Search of a Better World (Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years) 1st Edition

by Karl Popper (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$37.13","priceAmount":37.13,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"37","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"13","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"0A%2FpkFZqOMbHm4S6HNZyaud9cCGBDSLIwU21%2B83UT8NChL1oc63DYySJv%2Ft%2F1eEkIoFo0%2BsdqI1lNBK3vf7FhLs6Qh9PX7A0oWFlftZme5Dj56VxvLCeOpHCOoqMQRxRQ4lyDrnYqKo%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons
'I want to begin by declaring that I regard scientific knowledge as the most important kind of knowledge we have', writes Sir Karl Popper in the opening essay of this book, which collects his meditations on the real improvements science has wrought in society, in politics and in the arts in the course of the twentieth century. His subjects range from the beginnings of scientific speculation in classical Greece to the destructive effects of twentieth century totalitarianism, from major figures of the Enlightenment such as Kant and Voltaire to the role of science and self-criticism in the arts. The essays offer striking new insights into the mind of one of the greatest twentieth century philosophers.
Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0415135486
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0415135481
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publication date
    November 30, 1995
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.58 x 8.5 inches
  7. Print length
    256 pages
  8. See all details
Next page
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Frequently bought together

In Search of a Better World (Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years)
$37.13
Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 1
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
All Life is Problem Solving
$42.09
Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 1
Only 6 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by ayvax and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'It offers us a chance to renew our acquaintance with this veteran philosopher and to learn some new things.' - Jim Baggott, New Scientist

'Each of these essays speaks out in Popper's firm, clear, unambiguous voice ... they are very readable and persuasive on important issues.' - Nature

From the Back Cover

In the course of a life of ninety years Sir Karl can look back on positive changes in the world - the vast reductions in mass poverty, the liberalization of penal systems, the defeat of dictatorships. The search for a better world is never complete, but in spite of two world wars and a long and dangerous cold war, it was not in vain. The essays and lectures collected in this book chart many familiar as well as some less known aspects of Sir Karl's thinking - from his interest in the birth of scientific speculation in classical Greece to the destructive effects on the intellect of totalitarianism in twentieth-century states. His discussions range over problems of politics, the history of philosophy and great figures of the Enlightenment such as Voltaire and Kant, and the relation of science and art (in an address given at the 1979 Salzburg festival). The book offers important new insights into the thought of one of the greatest of living philosophers, and into the role of science in our civilization.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (November 30, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0415135486
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0415135481
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.58 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Karl Raimund Popper

Karl Raimund Popper
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Luc REYNAERT
5.0 out of 5 stars The intellectuals have done the most terrible harm for thousands of years
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2010
In this rather optimistic book, Karl Popper explains his own credo, his vision on Kant, the Frankfurt School and Darwinism as well as the `new' task for the intellectuals.

His credo, his task
`I am a rationalist. I believe in truth and in human reason. I have in mind the hope that inspired Pestalozzi that knowledge may make us free.' But, `I have in mind a serious obligation of never to pose as a prophet.'

Intellectuals
Karl Popper is rightly extremely harsh for those who should be at the forefront of human progress: `Intellectuals have done the most terrible harm for thousands of years. Mass murder in the name of an idea, a doctrine, a theory, a religion - that is all our doing, our invention.'
`If only we would stop setting man against man, much would be gained.'
IMHO: all these `theories' are a veil for the interests of those in power, who with any means (war, terrorism, censure, indoctrination, lies, corruption) (try to) defend their power base.

Kant
Kant has shown that every man is free, not because he is born free, but because he is born with the burden of responsibility for free decision.

Frankfurt School
Popper's verdict is extremely hard: `What have the neo-Dialecticians learnt? The basic thesis of Adorno and Habermas is the claim that factual knowledge and value judgments in sociology are inextricably linked.' (!)

Darwinism
Popper had terrible difficulties to accept Darwinism as a scientific theory, because one couldn't test it. He found a solution which he explained in `Unended Quest'.
Here, he develops his vision on Darwinism a little more.
The great American biologist G.C. Williams wrote that `natural selection, albeit stupid, is a story of unending arms races, slaughter and suffering. It is a law of nature and its immorality has to be accepted and, at least, to be thought about.'
Popper adopts a more Leibnizian view of `a world that has become more and more agreeable and more and more favourable to life, thanks to the activities of life and its search for a better world.' His view is idyllic: `the first cell is till living after billions of years and transformed out atmosphere with green plants. And it created our eyes and opened them to the blue sky and the stars.'
IMHO: This vision is extremely naïve and false. Evolution was only favourable for life of mankind, not for all other species on our planet. His optimistic viewpoint of `active selection for a better environment, active organisms constantly solving problems that improve life' should be replaced by selection through extermination and mutations by pure chance.
Mankind should give more attention to G.C. Williams's more pessimistic, but all too realistic, interpretation of the way of the world.

This book is a must read for all intellectuals and for all critical Popper fans.
Helpful
Report
JB
5.0 out of 5 stars Memorable
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2016
I always learn something worth remembering when I read Popper.
Helpful
Report
Kevin Currie-Knight
3.0 out of 5 stars Scientist; Humanist: Critical Rationalist
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2003
The burden of being a philosopher that says something both new and counter-intuitive is that throughout one's career, you end up repeating yourself, re-clarifying your arguments to the endless number of critcs that misunderstand you. In Popper's case, the views advanced were that all knowldedge must be held as tentative and that real intellectual progress comes not from verifying true theories (which can never be 'for sure) but in falsifying and eliminating old ones (which you only need to do once). The critics misinterpreted and Popper did repeat himself time and time again.
This is one of the very few bad things about the book. Honestly, if you've read Popper before (Conjectures and Refutations, Objective Knowledge, Logic of Scientific Discovery) this book will have little, if any, to add. If you've not, this is a great introduction.
There are 3 sections: On Knowledge, On History and a section for miscellaneous essays. The first section touches on Popper's views on how we recieve, criticize, falsify and act on knowledge. The second is an expansion of the first. Here, Popper focuses on historical events hee deems important: Immanuel Kant's phiosophical formulation, the invention of the book. He also gets a tad bit into politics, where a liberal democracy is preferred.
It is the third section, though, that is the payoff. Essays ranging in diversity from "How I See Philosophy" to "What Does The West Believe In". The best essay in the book, "Toleration and Intellectual Responsibility", is a critical rationalist's look at the role of intellectuals (Popper carefully avoids snobbery here) role in perpetuating a tolerant, non-violent society. As crucial now in '03 as when he gave the lecture in '82.
To conclude, if you are new to Popper, this is a good intro (but Conjectures and Refutations or Popper Selections might still be better. If you've read those or much other Popper before, you will probably find yourself able to guess what Popper says in each essay without much problem. You can safely skip this one.
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Peter Jenkins
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2018
Verified Purchase
Required reading for every one in this troubled, fake news, rea
One person found this helpful
Report
キルケ
1.0 out of 5 stars このペイパー本で10086円もするとは、
Reviewed in Japan on March 19, 2014
Verified Purchase
ポッパーの主著でも、ペーパー版で4千円前後で買えるのに、1万円近くもするとは、ボッタクリとしか
言いようがない。Ｂ5版で240頁ほどの洋書だ。
One person found this helpful
Report