[MD] Popper's Three Worlds

[ian glendinning]

Hi MoQ'ers,
I though you might be interested in this item from "Friends of Wisdom

Nick Maxwell summarised Karl Popper's three worlds thus ...
>
>                      World 1 is the physical universe.  World 2 is the
> psychological world, the world of consciousness or mind.  World 3 is the
> world of ideas, theories, problems, arguments, standards, even perhaps works
> of art.  According to Popper, we created world 3 when we began to theorize
> and argue; it then acquired a kind of autonomy; and it interacts with world
> 1 via world 2.  The atom bomb is, for Popper, a dramatic example of this
> interaction.  Physical theory interacts with the conscious minds of those
> physicists who created the atomic bomb.
>
>                       For a criticism, and an alternative and, in my view,
> better view, see my "The Human World in the Physical Universe", and
> "Popper's Paradoxical Pursuit of Natural Philosophy" (Cambridge Companion to
> Popper, 2007).

I responded
Great summary Nick,
Two aspects made crystal clear ...

(A) The evolutionary levels - from the physical through the living to
the conscious to "ideas".

(B) The "autonomy" of those ideas - memes, in a word.

Wow. We have consilience, Houston.

Ian