Episode
Episode 124: Popper's Evolutionary Theory of Knowledge
- Podcast
- The Theory of Anything
- Published
- Dec 9, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 4866
- Processing state
processed
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Summary
aka "The Popper vs Campbell Beatdown!" At long last! The showdown you've all been waiting for! These two giants of epistemology meet in the ring and fight it out for dominance! Bruce continues his exploration of evolutionary epistemology, or the idea that all knowledge creation in nature is analogous to natural selection. Specifically, Bruce discusses how Karl Popper’s critical rationalism is—and is not—related to Donald Campbell’s concept of evolutionary epistemology, which it seems Popper mostly endorsed. But is Popper’s conjecture and refutation really the same as Campbell’s blind variation and selective retention? And would Popper have agreed with David Deutsch that "All an animal's knowledge is in its genes?" (In fact, Popper explicitly answers that question! Multiple times! Tune in to find out!) Support us on Patreon