Evolutionary Epistemology

In: Critical review: an interdisciplinary journal of politics and society, Band 2, Heft 1, S. 92-102

Abstract

A review essay on a book edited by Gerard Radnitzky & W. W. Bartley, III, Evolutionary Epistemology, Theory of Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge (La Salle, Ill: Open Court, 1987 [see listing in IRPS No. 51]). Karl Popper conceived of evolutionary epistemology as a generalization of his theory that all learning is by trial & error, error being the selective impact of experience on our trials. The biological implications & the self-consistency of this conception, & rival views of knowledge are considered in this book. Attention is drawn to the divergent character & levels of difficulty of the work's three parts. Of most importance is the hypothesis of a real world as part of biological explanation. It is suggested here that this leaves the question of "what the real world is like" underdetermined. Like evolutionary anthropology, selection pressures explain general features, but not the detail, in evolutionary epistemology. AA