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Critical Rationalism Is Sir Karl Popper's Basic Position

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Critical Rationalism Is Sir Karl Popper's Basic Position Annals of the Japan Associationfor Philosophyof Science,March 1994 25 On Sir Karl Popper's Critical Rationalism Keiichiro. KAMINO I Critical Rationalism is Sir Karl Popper's basic position. The word "rational ism', however, is equivocal. Sir Karl's position, for instance, is not that rationalism propounded by Descartes, or Leibniz, at the beginning of modern times. We can say that in modern times, not only rationalists, but also empiricists, tried to build their philosophy along the line of rationalism, which might be called justificationism. By rejecting justificationism, however, Sir Karl has solved many philosophical problems. We should first make clear in what sense his position is a kind of rationalism. Though rationalism has various forms, it is at any rate one of the pillars of Western thought. We should remind ourselves that rationalism was initiated by the ancient Greek philosophers. We can see its beautiful florescence in the activ ities of the early Greek natural philosophers. According to Sir Karl, however, the decisive point in their intellectual tradition is the critical attitude developed in the Ionian school (C.R,, chap. 5). The questions which the Ionian school tried to answer, Sir Karl Popper says, were primarily cosmological, but they were also questions about a theory of knowl edge. In view of this, Popper contends that we should return to cosmology and to a simple theory of knowledge. By saying 'simple', he probably means that we should not bother with trivial questions, or questions merely for the sake of questions. That is, he is concerned with the problem of understanding the world in which we live. This problem, of course, includes both our knowledge of the world and the theory of our knowledge of the world. In fact, cosmology was the original form of Western philosophy. The history of Greek philosophy from the Ionian natural philosophers to Plato is, in a sense, a history of cosmology. But whence comes the originality we see in their achievements, Popper asks, and his answer is that it emerged from their tradition of critical discussion. It is in this tradition of the ancient thinkers that Popper sees the source of their wonderful originality. This view underlies his recommendation of critical rationalism. Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Letters, Osaka City University, Sugimoto, 3-3-138, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka 558, JAPAN. -211- 26 Keiichiro . KAMINO Vol. 8 II One of the requirements of critical rationalism is the attitude of solving problems by an appeal to reason, i.e. to clear thought and experience. Popper, however, divides rationalism into two kinds, namely critical rationalism, and the other, after his way of naming, comprehensive rationalism (O.S.E., chap. 24). These are matters which anyone who knows something about Popper's philosophy should know. But the reason why I have deliberately mentioned this, is as follows. Bartley, who was once one of Popper's students, criticised Popper's critical rationalism by saying that it is a retreat to commitment, and that in this sense it contains an irrational element (cf. Bartley, R.C.). Popper appreciated this criticism very highly. But as it seems to me, he still stands on his critical rationalism (O.S. E., chap. 24 & Addendum; R.A.S., chap. 1). Why so? I should like to make this matter clear, because I think this consideration would lead us to a better understand ing of Ponner's own nhilosonhical position. III First I should mention briefly why Popper divided rationalism into two kinds. Anyone would agree that we should be responsible for our own judgements, decisions, and actions. This is an individualistic claim, and has a close connection with the attitude to try to see things clearly when acting, by an appeal to rational reflection. But, why should we be rational rather than irrational? This is obvious ly a moral question. Now, we could perhaps vindicate our choice, but would not be able to justify it logically. A defence of one choice or decision may be made by comparing the consequences which result from it, with those which would follow from some other choice. But of course, there are blind decisons that do not take any account of whatever consequences may result. No analysis of the consequences which are likely to result from the alternatives can justify blind decisions. Moreover,analysis or comparison presupposes the operation of reason. This means that we should first stand on the rationalist position, before we start to analyse or compare things. In order for us to be a rationalist, we should first make a moral decision to adopt rationalism; such a decision must therefore come first. And such a moral decison cannot be judgement deduced from mere facts. This fact Popper regards as the presupposition of his critical rationalism, and propounds a dualism of facts and decisions (O.S.E., chap. 5). The claim that the adoption of rationalism should be justified is logically impossible, because to take the position that we should make appeal only to reason and experience is to presuppose rationalism. The justification of the adoption of rationalism by an appeal to reason and experi ence only, therefore, is nothing but a question-beggingof the justification of rational -212- No. 4 On Sir Karl Popper's Critical Rationalism 27 ism by an appeal to rationalism. Broadly speaking, the adoption of rationalism is a matter of moral decision (O.S.E., chap. 24). We discard irrationalism, because we find it more dangerous than rationalism. Thus, extreme or comprehensive rationalism is, in itself, inconsistent. As far as only the adoption of such standpoints is concerned, therefore, irrationalism is logically superior to rationalism. We have, however, to narrow and minimize the room that we allow to irrationalism. Popper, accordingly, contends that a true rationalism consists in the intellectual modesty of those who know how often they err, and distinguishes it from extreme or comprehensive rationalism. Of course, he rejects comprehensive rationalism, and advocates critical rationalism instead. An appeal to arguments or experience can be effective as a method of solving problems, only to those who are already prepared to adopt an irrational faith in reason. Thus, the fundamental attitude of rationalism necessarily presupposes the self-knowledge of the limits of rationalism. The critical rationalist recognises this fact (O.S.E., chap. 24). Sir Karl Popper's critical rationalism, therefore, is in opposition not only to irrationalism, but also to comprehensive rationalism. It is not, however, incompat ible with empiricism; it includes empiricism as well as intellectualism. In so far as it denies authoritarianism which both rationalism and empiricism contain, it is, of course, in opposition to them. Rationalism is an attitude that seeks to solve as many problems as possible by appeal to reason and experience, an attitude of readiness to listen to critical arguments and to learn from experience. It is very similar to the scientific attitude (ibid.). From critical rationalism, we can draw many instructive consequences. It leads us, for instance, to the recognition of the need of social mechanisms or institutions to protect the freedom of criticism, i.e. the need for some defence of liberalism and the denial of authoritarianism. In the theory of knowledge, the denial of authoritarianism means the rejection of the inquiry into the origin of knowledge, and the task of the theory of knowledge would be to ask how we can hope to detect and eliminate errors (O.S.E., chaps. 10, 24). Both rationalists and empiricists in early modern times stood on some kind of authoritarianism, in so far as they have tried to justify knowledge by way of detecting its origins in intellect or experience respectively (C.R., Intro.). The method by which we can eliminate errors is 'by criticism', namely by criticising theories or conjectures of others and of our own as well (ibid.). The value of a theory will be increased not by defending the theory, but by the failure of severe attacks upon it. Therefore, it is very important for us to obtain environmental niches in which we can hold some mechanisms or institutions that allow us to criticise freely. In the theory of knowledge, one of the developments of critical rationalism may, for instance, take the form of the 'Kantian problem'. If criticisability ought to be -213- 28 Keiichiro. KAMINO Vol. 8 one of the conditions our knowledge should have, how to draw a line of demarcation between criticisable, i.e. rational beliefs, and irrational beliefs is rather an important problem. One of the forms which the demarcation problem may take is to distin guish scientific knowledge from non-scientific knowledge, and this is what Sir Karl Popper calls the 'Kantian problem' (ibid.). Another development of critical ration alism in the field of the theory of knowledge is his solution of the problem of induction (cf. L. Sc. D.). IV I have given only a very sketchy description of Popper's critical rationalism. But I hope that this would be enough to suggest its effectiveness. Now, as I already mentioned above, Bartley contends that the foundation of this rationalism is not solid enough. He propounds, therefore, his pancritical rationalism. And, although Popper appreciated this criticism, and made some corrections of such misleading expresions as could have given rise to the misunderstanding that he holds some kind of justificationism or other, he still holds to critical rationalism. Why so ? In order to see the matter clearly, let us next try to see what Bartley's argument is. V Bartley expounds the problem of rationality which he regards as one of the three principal problems of philosophy. The central problem in this is not to have a conflict within a theory of rationality itself, a conflict that appears when it is discovered that according to one's theory of rationality, rationality is impossible.
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