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Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography
by
Karl Popper
At the age of eight, Karl Popper was puzzling over the idea of infinity and by fifteen was beginning to take a keen interest in his father's well-stocked library of books. Unended Quest recounts these moments and many others in the life of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, providing an indispensable account of the ideas that influenced him most
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Hardcover
,
328 pages
Published
June 20th 2002
by Routledge
(first published 1976)
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Required reading for school (again). Author is a philosopher of science who has an unfortunate tendency to assume that the average reader has the same knowledge base of philosophy as he has. The ideas themselves are fairly interesting, but the presentation nearly obscures them at times. A very frustrating read and a book that I would not recommend unless you have severe insomnia.
Reading this 40-chapter “Unended Quest” by Karl Popper was enriching and stimulating since the book “recounts these moments and many others in the life of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. … Yet it is as an introduction to Popper’s philosophy that "Unended Quest" shines. …” (back cover) However, the contents from Chapter 31 (Objectivity and Criticism) towards Chapter 40 (The Place of Values in a World of Facts) seemed to focus on his philosophy gradually and theoreti
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I feel guilty for saying this, but I find this book to be really boring and am having trouble making myself slog through it.
Certainly like the whole "reality exists" idea though.
(Later on).
Relieved to have finished the book. It sort of picks up after the bit where he talks about his ideas about music. Again a feeling of embarrassment, as though I were a kid who would only read books if they had pictures in them, I often found myself being much more interested in Popper's life story than his idea ...more
Certainly like the whole "reality exists" idea though.
(Later on).
Relieved to have finished the book. It sort of picks up after the bit where he talks about his ideas about music. Again a feeling of embarrassment, as though I were a kid who would only read books if they had pictures in them, I often found myself being much more interested in Popper's life story than his idea ...more
My first time reading this ~2003 it was a frustrating experience. I did, at the time, really enjoy the chapter about his musical interests. Rereading over a decade later and found it to have subtle charms throughout
A very challenging biography of one of the greatest philosophers of science in the twentieth century. Popper is best known for overthrowing positivism and for his falsification criterion.
A good, though perhaps not excellent, introduction to Popper's thinking on issues like the problem of demarcation (and the role of falsificationism in solving it), the nature of theories, political philosophy, evolutionary theory, and the role of metaphysics in science. There is also a good amount of biographical info in here, especially on Popper's early years in Vienna (among other things, Popper almost became a professional musician).
My reservations about the book are primarily due to Popper ...more
My reservations about the book are primarily due to Popper ...more
"Unended Quest" provides a lucid summary of the broad themes of Popper's work along with some background he has provided of his life. I don't think one can overstate the contribution Popper has made to the theory of knowledge, even if many philosophers seem to ignore him after making, perhaps, offhand comments against his criticism of induction. I suppose they would be prickly as, as W.W.Bartley says, if Popper is even remotely on the right track many professional philosophers have simply wasted
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La autobiografía intelectual de Popper es una gran obra introductoria para aquellos que no son familiares a su obra, pero también es una gran fuente de material para entender algunos de los procesos que generaron sus contribuciones mas importantes en las áreas de episcopologio, filosofía política y de la ciencia, probabilidad y su visión en general realista.
El libro narra los diversos encuentros intelectuales de Popper con otros pensadores y cientificos de la época como Niels Bohr, Albert Einste ...more
El libro narra los diversos encuentros intelectuales de Popper con otros pensadores y cientificos de la época como Niels Bohr, Albert Einste ...more
Aug 26, 2014
Izabela Kolar Furjan
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
autobiografije
Nedovršena potraga 176 Intelektualna autobiografija
Algoritam 2004 953-220-233-1
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Algoritam 2004 953-220-233-1
----
http://opak.crolib.hr/cgi-bin/wero.cg...
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/28147566...
This book is a bit of a ramble of Poppers ideas, which isn't necassarily a bad thing since he has so many good one. It's probably one of Popper's funnest books, in that it's a lighter read but still full of interesting thoughts, and if you like the idea of reading an intellectual autobigraphy it'll scratch that itch. But it's main merit is unfortunately very much the biographical element--it's fun to see where the ideas come from. As far as Popper books goes there are many deeper and more insigh
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Versão Portuguesa : Busca Inacabada
Considero o livro muito interessante embora com algumas passagens quase inacessíveis para um leitor não muito versado em filosofia e na ciência.
Por outro lado, gostei muito de conhecer o percurso de vida do Karl Popper e acho que fiquei ainda melhor elucidado sobre como esse percurso moldou o seu extraordinário pensamento.
Claro que aprecio muito o seu optimismo e o seu gosto imenso pela VIDA e pelo regime democrático, coisas que partilho com Popper.
Considero o livro muito interessante embora com algumas passagens quase inacessíveis para um leitor não muito versado em filosofia e na ciência.
Por outro lado, gostei muito de conhecer o percurso de vida do Karl Popper e acho que fiquei ainda melhor elucidado sobre como esse percurso moldou o seu extraordinário pensamento.
Claro que aprecio muito o seu optimismo e o seu gosto imenso pela VIDA e pelo regime democrático, coisas que partilho com Popper.
I really like the philosophy of Karl Popper, and The Logic of Scientific Discovery has made a big impact on my life as a young scientist in training. However, asking famous philosophers to wax-reminiscent about their life experiences may be somewhat ill-advised. He comes of as somewhat of a self-effacing, yet pompous know-it-all. Kind of a disappointing read.
Fantastic intro to popper's philosophy. Not a biography in the conventional sense. His life is his work; the book is a collection of problems he has solved and wants to solve.
Inspiring and thought provoking, gives an intimate view of the life of a lover of knowledge.
Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography by Karl Raimund Popper (1982)
"I conjecture that the origin of life and the origin of problems coincide."
Quite a short book, but most entertaining and reading it was time well spent.
Allwissenheit und menschliche Fehlbarkeit.
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Sir Karl Raimund Popper CH, FRS, FBA (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian and British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. He is counted among the most influential philosophers of science of the 20th century, and also wrote extensively on social and political philosophy. Popper is known for repudiating the classical observationalist/inductivist account of sc
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“Learning to read, and to a lesser degree, to write, are of course the major events in one’s intellectual development. There is nothing to compare with it, since very few people (Helen Keller is the great exception) can remember what it meant for them to learn to speak.”
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