POPPER, Karl R., Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London), 1963 [first edition]

8vo; pp. xiii, 412

A beautiful copy of this classic, containing Popper’s important essay on the reality of philosophical problems, amongst many others.

The story of Wittgenstein’s engagement with Popper is now well known, having been the subject of a bestselling popular book, Wittgenstein’s Poker (2001). In 1946 Wittgenstein had chaired a session of the Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club, at which Popper presented his paper entitled ‘Are There Philosophical Problems?’ During the heated debate that followed, Wittgenstein apparently thrust a fireplace poker at Popper, who wryly commented that not threatening speakers with a poker was a good example of a moral rule – at which point Wittgenstein stormed out. Popper developed the paper further, engaging closely with Wittgenstein’s work and giving it as his Chairman’s address to the Philosophy of Science Group of the British Society for the History of Science. Here the paper constitutes chapter 2 of one of Popper’s best known collections of essays.

Very good condition: jacket mildly worn to hinges and edges; black cloth pristine; internally clean throughout except for a small ownership inscription to the front free endpaper.