Popper's third world includes a variety of contents of scientific, poetical, and philosophical thought, as well as standards and values. This heterogeneous construction has been associated by Popper with Frege's drittes Reich. The author discussed the problem of legitimizing such a comparison.

In Polish philosophical literature, especially didactic, a stereotype of Popper as a neopositivist is suprisingly stubborn. This stereotype does not help in understanding the relation between Popper and Vienna Circle, and the evolution of Popper's own views. Antimetaphysical bias of the neopositivists stands in evident contradiction to Popper's approach, who based his conceptual system on metaphysical ideas. In the article I qrgue that „late” Popper did not conctradict himself from the Vienna period. I show that „Logik der Forschung” is usually (...) read through the neopositivistic filter, and that is why Popper's statements are so often misinterpreted. (shrink)

In the paper the main topics in modern reflection on scientific discovery are highlighted. Among them are: difference between the context of discovery and the context of justification; case studies from the history of science; a search for the logic ofdiscovery; and philosophical aspects of scientific discovery.