Of Clouds and Clocks. An Approach to the Problem of Rationality and the Freedom of Man. The Arthur Holly Compton Memorial Lecture Presented at Washington University, April 21, 1965.

INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR

First edition. 8vo. vii, [1], 38 pp. Original white printed wrappers, wire-stitched as issued (some light wear to corners, otherwise a near fine copy). St Louis, Missouri; Washington University.

A presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the distinguished Scottish philosopher Herbert James Paton (1887-1969) 'To H.J. Paton with kind regards from K. R. Popper June 1966.' in blue ink to the title page. 'Paton is best known for his scholarly work on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant' (Dictionary of Twentieth Century British Philosophers).

'Karl Popper's influential 1966 essay Of Clouds and Clocks contrasts two physical systems, the indeterminate, such as the irregular formation and dissipation of clouds and the determinate, epitomised by the precise workings of a clock. All other phenomena in the world, argues Popper, lie between these two polarities. For him, the cloud is analogous to the disorderly forces of the natural world while the clock represents the scientific approach, the reductionist Newtonian position that "all clouds are clocks", all the mysteries of the universe will be unlocked by science in time. Following Charles Sanders Pierce, Popper asserts that even the most minutely analysed organism or system contains a certain looseness or imperfection', which he ascribes to chance' (Elwes, Landscape and the Moving Image).

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