Logik der Forschung.

Vienna: Julius Springer,, 1935. Black swans First edition of the author's first book, one of the most important philosophical books of the century, known to the English-speaking world as The Logic of Scientific Discovery, though not published in English until 1959. The work had a profound effect on the philosophy of science, and on the methods of practising scientists. The Logik der Forschung addressed the problem that preoccupied Popper throughout the rest of his career, that of distinguishing proper science from pseudoscience. His famous answer, which he refined in his later writings, was that scientific theories are distinguished by their falsifiability (with the famous example, that the statement "all swans are white" can be falsified by a single black swan). Consequently, Popper held, psychoanalysis, Marxist historiography and transcendental metaphysics are not genuinely scientific, for there is no way of refuting them. Popper had close connections with the logical positivists, and the work was published in Vienna Circle's series Schriften zur Wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung. Octavo. Original printed wrappers. Slight soiling to wrappers, a few early ink and pencil annotations in German, contents otherwise clean. A very good copy.