Objective Knowledge

A collection of Popper’s papers setting out an evolutionary epistemology: knowledge grows by conjecture and error-elimination, the same logic by which organisms adapt, and what matters is not the psychological state of the knower but the objective content of theories and the criticism they survive. The volume contains the “third world” argument for the autonomy of objective knowledge, the attack on the bucket theory of mind, and Popper’s case that the problem of induction is dissolved rather than solved.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the Science, Technology, and Epistemology section, which is the curriculum’s account of how knowledge is actually produced — and it is marked on the source list.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Science, Technology, and Epistemology. A structured curriculum shared March 9, 2026 and saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Books To Read”; the full 211-entry transcription is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Karl Popper — the author.
• Epistemology — the field this reframes evolutionarily.
• Knowledge — objective knowledge as something with a life of its own.
• Falsifiability — Popper’s criterion, argued here against induction.
• Evolution — the mechanism he takes knowledge growth to share.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.