ABSTRACT

Once Popper’s theories first became known through the publication of the German edition of the Logic in 1934, they had a huge impact not only in logical-positivist philosophical circles, but also in England where he was invited to lecture the following year. He recalls that the Logik der Forschung had ‘more reviews, in more languages, than there were twenty-five years later of The Logic of Scientific Discovery, and fuller reviews even in English’ (UQ: 107). After that, Popper’s fortunes never declined; indeed, as the years went by, his fame spread beyond geographical and academic limits into the literary pages of daily newspapers, establishing itself even among those who were not professional philosophers. Popper’s success was undoubtedly favoured by his clear and intelligible style, but this did not spare him a whole series of misunderstandings. He replied to these in detail at the end of a collection of essays on his thought published in 1974, in a section entitled ‘Replies to My Critics’.