THE INTELLECTUAL AND POLITICAL ROOTS OF C RITICAL RATIONALISM

Born in 1902, Karl R. Popper spent the first 33 years of his life in t he city of Vienna, at that time the hot-house of Central-European cult ure and thought, He died in England. September 17, 1994 Unlike the emp irical inductionists of the Vienna Circle, he preferred deductivist th eorizing and the metaphysical realism (or objectivism) of the Boltzman n-Einstein School. Though he pleaded explicitly for a special method o f 'Verstehen' in sociology, the reception of his methodology still tak es place mainly with reference to the growth of knowledge in the natur al sciences as reconstructed in 'The Logic of Scientific Discovery' (1 959), neglecting his idea of 'situational analysis'. Unlike the empiri cal inductionists of the Vienna Circle, he preferred deductivist theor izing and the metaphysical realism (or objectivism) of the Boltzmann-E instein School.