Narrative as adaptation: Karl Popper’s evolutionary epistemology and the narrative theory of historical knowledge

Abstract

The article points out that Karl Popperʼs critical rationalism is a productive synthesis of the ideas of rationalist and empirical approaches in the theory of knowledge, and as a result can be considered as a fruitful alternative and conceptual basis for the concept of evolutionary epistemology. The author argues that the main provisions of Popperʼs evolutionary epistemology should be more extensively applied in the philosophy and methodology of the humanities, in particular in the philosophy of history as a theoretical understanding of the process of cognition of history and the development of history as a system of knowledge about the past. For example, the method of trial and error as a way of producing scientific knowledge, as well as the idea of mediating knowledge through written language — the objectification of knowledge in language (more broadly, in texts) — are directly related to the problems of the narrative theory of historical knowledge in contemporary philosophy of history.

It is emphasized that Popperʼs theory of knowledge is aimed at solving problems primarily in the natural and exact sciences. Nevertheless, in the proposed translation of Popper's lecture Evolutionary Epistemology, he touches upon one of the most important methodological issues of modern history theory-the question of the possibilities of cognition and systematic study of the past as an object that no longer exists in the present, and information about which we receive indirectly through language-objectified in historical texts (sources and narratives). According to Popper, it is from storytelling and description of the state of affairs (as a component of storytelling) that the human ability to create an explanatory story, myth, and explanatory theory gradually developed. 

The author notes that Popper does not further develop his thesis on explanatory story. However, within the framework of the analytical philosophy of history, a special term, narrative, was introduced for explanatory descriptive stories, and a whole field of research, the narrative theory of historical knowledge, was introduced.  According to Arthur Dantoʼs classical definition, a historical narrative is to some extent already a form of explanation, since a narrative both describes and explains historical events at the same time. This definition of historical narrative allows us to consider it as a kind of functional analogue of theory in science, which structures and explains historical data, and also requires conceptual verification and factual confirmation. Thus, historical narratives can also be viewed as adaptations or trial theories in the Popperian sense, which can never be final, compete with each other, and are always open to critical revision. Therefore, the possibility of several competing narratives regarding the coverage of a particular historical topic, phenomenon, or situation should be considered as a normal way in which historical science functions.