Popper's three worlds
Popper's three worlds is a way of looking at reality, described by the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper in a lecture in 1978.[1] The concept involves three interacting worlds, called World 1, World 2 and World 3.[2]
Worlds 1, 2 and 3
Popper split the world into three categories:
- World 1: the world of physical objects and events, including biological entities
- World 2: the world of mental objects and events
- World 3: objective knowledge.
The interaction of World 1 and World 2
The theory of interaction between World 1 and World 2 is an alternative theory to Cartesian dualism, which is based on the theory that the universe is composed of two essential substances: Res Cogitans and Res Extensa. Popperian cosmology rejects this essentialism, but maintains the common sense view that physical and mental states exist, and they interact.
World 3
Popper's World 3 contains the products of thought. This includes abstract objects such as scientific theories, stories, myths, tools, social institutions, and works of art.[2] World 3 is not to be conceived as a Platonic realm.[3]
The interaction of World 2 and World 3
The interaction of World 2 and World 3 is based on the theory that World 3 is partially autonomous. For example, the development of scientific theories in World 3 leads to unintended consequences, in that problems and contradictions are discovered by World 2. Another example is that the process of learning causes World 3 to change World 2.
The interaction of World 1 and World 3
Other entities are contained in World 3, such as feats of engineering and art. The World 3 objects, although extant in World 1, are embodied and given extra meaning by World 3. For example, the intrinsic value of Hamlet as a World 3 object is embodied many times in World 1, the physical world. This idea would be something along the lines of a meta-object, or a form of being.
Works
- Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, 1972
- The Self and Its Brain: An Argument for Interactionism (with Sir John C. Eccles), 1977
- The Open Universe: An Argument for Indeterminism, 1982
- Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem, 1994.
See also
- John Carew Eccles' philosophy
- Trichotomy (philosophy)
- Subject–object problem
- Physical determinism
References
- ↑ Three Worlds by Karl Popper - The Tanner Lecture on Human Values - Delivered by Karl Popper at The University of Michigan on April 7, 1978.
- 1 2 Heller, Michael. Philosophy in Science: An Historical Introduction. Springer, 2011, p. 118ff.
- ↑ Ian Charles Jarvie, Karl Milford, David W. Miller (eds.), Karl Popper: Metaphysics and epistemology, Ashgate Publishing, 2006, p. 61: "the most important difference between platonism and Popper is the fact that World 3 is created by human beings..."
External links
- Three Worlds by Karl Popper - The Tanner Lecture on Human Values - Delivered by Karl Popper at The University of Michigan on April 7, 1978.
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