Logik der Forschung

Wien: Verlag von Julius Springer. 1935 [1934].

First edition. 8vo, 218x143mm. pp. vi, 248, [2]. In the original wrappers, small tear to foot of spine and to joint with lower cover and a crease to the bottom right corner of the upper cover and the first six leaves but otherwise in very good condition throughout. Popper's Logik der Forschung (translated in 1959 as The Logic of Scientific Discovery) was published in 1934 (although given a 1935 imprint) and is regarded as one of the twentieth-century's most important contributions to scientific and philosophical method. Popper's argument (broadly and briefly) is that science should proceed on the basis of what is not known ("the falsification principle") rather than what is known - a deductive, not inductive process. This brief note is not (thankfully) the place for a discursive essay on the nature of Popperian applied methodology. For that you will need to read the book.