Book: All Life Is Problem Solving

Overview
All Life Is Problem Solving gathers Karl Popper's essays and lectures that press a single, bold claim: life, from biological evolution to human thought, is best understood as an ongoing process of problem solving. The collected pieces emphasize the continuity between natural selection and human rationality, arguing that both operate through variation, selection, and the critical testing of solutions. Popper frames evolution not merely as an account of genetic change but as an epistemic mechanism that produces increasingly effective ways of coping with problems.
The essays assemble Popper's mature reflections on evolution, knowledge, and social institutions. They move fluidly between philosophy of science, evolutionary theory, and social philosophy, illustrating how a problem-solving perspective reshapes questions about explanation, progress, and the aims of inquiry without appealing to historicist or teleological accounts.

Core Thesis
Central to the book is the idea that knowledge advances through conjectures and refutations. Popper rejects the notion that certainty or verification is the hallmark of scientific progress; instead, he contends that bold conjectures are valuable precisely because they can be rigorously criticized and tested. Solutions to problems are provisional, surviving only until better ones are proposed and subjected to scrutiny.
This approach treats both biological adaptations and human theories as tentative solutions that have been selected for their problem-solving efficacy. The emphasis on criticism over justification places evaluative interaction at the heart of epistemic development, making error detection and correction decisive forces in intellectual and practical life.

Problem Solving in Biology
Popper extends the problem-solving schema to natural selection by interpreting organisms as carriers of solutions to environmental problems. Genetic variation produces competing solutions, and selection favors those that best solve survival and reproductive challenges. This reading highlights the explanatory power of trial-and-error processes and reframes adaptation as an epistemic achievement produced without foresight or conscious design.
He contrasts this blind selection with the conscious problem solving of humans, while arguing that both contribute to a cumulative growth of adaptations and knowledge. The biological metaphor thus underpins an evolutionary epistemology: knowledge grows when tentative solutions are subjected to tests that weed out errors and preserve what works.

Human Knowledge and Society
Human institutions, norms, and knowledge systems are analyzed as collective problem-solving arrangements. Popper treats scientific communities, legal systems, and political structures as mechanisms for generating and testing solutions to social problems. Open societies are defended not merely on moral grounds but as superior epistemic environments where criticism can flourish and policies can be improved through trial and error.
The political implications are significant: dogmatism and authoritarianism suppress the critical feedback that enables correction and innovation. By linking freedom to epistemic success, Popper argues that protection of critical discourse is essential for societal progress and the discovery of better solutions to shared problems.

Method and Critique
Methodologically, the collected essays reiterate Popper's skepticism toward inductive proof and historicist grand narratives. He insists that scientific method must prioritize falsifiability as the demarcation of scientific theories, and he sees fallibilism, the recognition that any claim can be wrong, as a constructive stance that drives improvement. Criticism is not merely destructive but productive because it opens the way to superior conjectures.
Popper also confronts potential misunderstandings of evolutionary explanations, clarifying that teleology is not required to account for purposive-seeming adaptations. His insistence on clarity, intellectual humility, and continuous testing forms a consistent methodological call to prefer openness and criticism over certainty and orthodoxy.

Legacy and Importance
All Life Is Problem Solving synthesizes Popper's contributions to evolutionary epistemology and social philosophy, making a case for the unity of epistemic and biological problem-solving processes. The collection reinforces his standing as a philosopher who sought to bridge scientific theory and human affairs, advocating methods that favor creativity, criticism, and institutional openness.
Its influence extends across debates in philosophy of science, evolutionary theory, and political thought by offering a coherent framework for understanding progress without invoking inevitability. The book invites readers to view problems as opportunities for conjecture, criticism, and incremental improvement, thereby reshaping how adaptation and knowledge are conceived.