KARL POPPER’S CONCEPT OF ‘WORLD 3’

Abstract

Karl R. Popper (1902-1994) was a great philosopher of 20th century best known for his Political Philosophy and his contribution in Philosophical Epistemology. His concept of ‘World 3’is basically an extension of his Epistemological views. According to Popper there is not one single world in front of us but three. ‘World 1’ is the world of material objects. ‘World 2’ is the world of human perception, conception, a disposition to act or react etc. ‘World 3’ is the world of all possible human creation. Popper considers Plato as the first discoverer of ‘World 3.’ Popper considers World of Ideas or Forms as the first attempt in the history of Western Philosophy to locate the Ontology of Knowledge. In the World of Forms of Plato every Idea is perfect, every idea is a Substance and objectively existent. But according to Popper the ‘World 3’ is Manmade and not divine. He is also of the view that with the interaction of ‘World 1’ and ‘World 2’, ‘World 3’ comes in to being but after its coming to existence, it liberates itself from the previous worlds. It becomes objective, self-existent but Popper claims that it is not divine as Plato and Hegel think of it. This article is an attempt to critically discuss that is it possible for any world to be Manmade in nature and yet totally independent of any human mind at the same time? Keywords: World 3, World of Forms, Objective Spirit, Epistemology, Ontology.