GLI IONICI NELL‘ANALISI EPISTEMOLOGICA DI KARL POPPER

Descrizione

SOMMARIO – 1. La griglia di lettura popperiana. 2. Talete e Anassimandro. 3. Anassimandro

fu uno scienziato? 4. Anassimene. 5. La tradizione critica segreta degli antichi.

6. Conclusioni.

ABSTRACT – The “Ionic school” in the Karl Popper’s epistemologic analysis. According

to Popper, the Ionic school was the cradle of the traditional Western criticism. Thales

provided an example of a “general theory of the knowledge” and he using a hypothetical

conjectural support. Anassimandro used speculative and critic arguments and came to a

true theory of the earth’s shape and identified the arché in the àpeiron. Finally thanks to

Anassimene, theorization had a new and greater concreteness, since the abstract and

unlimited àpeiron was replaced by air (pneuma), certainly closer to the common sense.

The author emphasizes Popper’s deep admiration for the Ionic school, which was the first

where pupils used to criticize their masters and to go beyond the concept of “doctrine”,

in favour of more hypothesis in the context of a debate in order to pursue a perfectible

and never exhausted knowledge. At last the tradition of the “bold conjectures and of free

criticism” started and they became the forces of Popper’s epistemology.

KEYWORDS – Archè, Critical tradition, Primacy of the question, Hypotheticaldeductive

method, Conjectures and refutations.