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"One of the main tasks for human reason is to make the universe we live in understandable to ourselves. This is the task of science. There are two different components of about equal importance in this enterprise. The first is poetic inventiveness ..."
– Karl Popper
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Author Archives: Alan Forrester
Epistemology and the laws of physics
I’ve written a paper that uses evolutionary epistemology to solve a problem in the foundations of physics: explaining the second law of thermodynamics.
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Scientism vs Liberalism
In his book, “The Counter-Revolution of Science”, Hayek argued against scientism – attempts by the social sciences to ape the methods of the natural sciences by ignoring the subjectivity of economic value. I will apply these ideas to criticise of some current ideas that the government should use force to make people happier. Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, ethics, open society
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Howson on Deutsch
In Chapter 7 of his book The Fabric of Reality, David Deutsch has a dialogue in which he discusses critical rationalism with a crypto-inductivist, a philosopher who thinks there is an induction shaped hole in his worldview although he agrees … Continue reading
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Utopianism, Libertarianism and Other Political Theories
In Chapter 9 of Volume 1 of The Open Society and Its Enemies, Popper argues against utopianism. I have heard many people say that libertarianism is utopian. For example, in this series of videos the speaker often states or implies … Continue reading
Posted in open society
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Popper on Schools and Universities
It has been said, only too truly, that Plato was the inventor of both our secondary schools and our universities. I do not know a better argument for the optimistic view of mankind than the fact that this devastating system of education has not utterly ruined them. Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, ethics, open society, quote
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Who Should Decide?
Popper points out that it is difficult to find a government on whose goodness and wisdom we can rely and so that we should set up our institutions to allow us to prevent bad government from doing too much damage. Many people seem unaware of this argument and its implications for political and moral philosophy. Continue reading
Posted in ethics, open society
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The Myth of the Framework
The Myth of the Framework is an essay Popper wrote that was published in the book of the same title. The point of the essay is that relativists tend to set excessively high standards for making progress. I would add that this is not just a problem for relativists: it is is a very widespread and extremely damaging obstacle to intellectual and moral progress. Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, ethics
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Optimism vs Faith
In the debate between those who think the human species is doomed due to this or that environmental problem and those who are more optimistic, one often gets the impression from pessimistic environmentalists that optimism is motivated solely by faith. In … Continue reading
Posted in historicism, open society
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Disagreement vs. Justificationism
Justificationists often complain that Popper’s philosophy doesn’t enable us to pick out one scientific theory as being decisively the best at any particular time. But there is something extremely odd about this objection. Critical rationalists advocate various restrictions on what … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, science
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Stanford Encylopedia Criticisms
This is a follow up to Rafe’s post The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy vs Karl Popper in which I reply to the Encyclopedia’s criticism of Popper’s position. Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, science
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