КОРНИлог: Наука и политика как методы

“Because authoritarian structures incorporate the same mistaken notions of certainty, and the same mistaken assumptions about method, as does the traditional view of science, the arguments underlying Popper's criticism of the view that in politics we even can, let alone should aim to, establish and preserve a certain state of society are in point after point the same as those underlying his criticism of the view that science even can, let alone should aim to, establish and preserve certain knowledge. And his view, by contrast, that science is scientific method, and his view of how this method is to be seen, are at all levels interrelated with his view that politics is political method, and his view of how this method is to be seen. In both cases what he asks us to use with imagination and feeling is an unending feedback process in which the bold propounding of new ideas is invariably attended by their subjection to rigorous error elimination in the light of experience. He calls this approach 'critical rationalism' in philosophy; in politics he calls it, 'piecemeal social engineering'.”

Bryan Magee, 'Popper'. (This small and cheap booklet is maybe a bit dated, but it's still the best introduction to Popper. It's a masterpiece, and can be bought second-hand at extremely low prices. The US-edition has a different title: 'Philosophy and the Real World: An Introduction to Karl Popper'.)

242 words