Karl Popper on the Unknown Logic of Artistic Production and Creative Discovery

Abstract

In the field of artistic research there has recently been a resurgence of interest in Karl Popper’s thought on scientific methodology. However, the current literature on artistic research has tended to reduce his methodological thought to the arguments in his book The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959). Although greatly influential, this book does not represent Popper’s “mature” or later arguments. This article provides an alternative view of Popper better suited to debates on creativity and discovery. Contrary to his popularity in political and scientific circles, the relation of Popper’s arguments to the arts is less well known and has not seriously been studied, despite his profound influence on the art historian Ernst Gombrich. This article points out ways in which Popper’s thought can continue to contribute to the current debates on artistic research and creative production. It does this by disclosing the way in which his later writings on evolutionary epistemology and theory of objective knowledge, otherwise called the “World 3 Thesis,” can contribute to the field of artistic research.