Category Archives: epistemology

Conclusion of paper on Popper and Hayek

At the conclusion of comparing Popper and Hayek on some specific issues, a quick look at another topic that Boettke mentioned. This is the dangerous liaison between scientism and statism and it is probably worth mentioning Popper’s critique of the … Continue reading

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Peter Boettke’s new book on F A Hayek

Peter Boettke, F. A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy, Great Thinkers in Economics Series, Palgrave Macmillan, 323 pages. This is an ambitious book on the career of one of the very significant thinkers of our time. Friedrich A … Continue reading

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Popper’s institutional turn

The purpose of this series of posts is to explain three areas where Popper and Hayek stood together. This is often overlooked among followers of Hayek who are not interested in Popper and also followers of Popper who are not … Continue reading

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Critical rationalism and the critique of constructivist rationalism

Popper, Hayek and Oakeshott were all concerned with defective forms of rationality. Popper rejected comprehensive or unlimited rationality, Hayek criticised constructivist rationality and Oakeshott famously criticised Rationalism in politics. My conclusion is that all three had substantially the same views … Continue reading

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Popper and Hayek versus scientism

The synergy of Popper and the Austrian economists is apparently not an idea whose time has come just yet. This calls for a study of the reason why the synergy is apparent to some people like the late Gerard Radnitzky … Continue reading

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Review of Malachi Hacohen, Karl Popper, The Formative Years, 1902-1945. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

This originally appeared in the Australian monthly magazine Quadrant . It is reprinted in the revised paper edition of the collection Reason and Imagination. Karl Popper almost came to the University of Sydney in 1945. John Anderson invited him to join … Continue reading

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Karl Popper’s Contribution to Austrian Economics, the Quality of Science and Critical Thinking

 Rafe Champion and  Brian Gladish, Independent Scholars The Austrian-born philosopher Karl Popper charted new direction in the philosophy of science in the 1930s with Logik der Forschung (The Logic of Scientific Discovery 1959). His ideas can be recruited to support the … Continue reading

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Goodman’s new problem of induction, grue emeralds

This is an essay drafted in response to a question in a Philosophy of  Science Course at the local university. The reading in the list is the  relevant section of Nelson Goodman’s book Fact, Fiction and Forecast in the 1950s.  … Continue reading

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The Austrian Keys

By Leo Dunbar, Age Monthly Review, Melbourne 1985. The economic affairs of many countries and the dismal science itself are in a very sorry state. Shortsighted protectionist policies in Western countries aided by ideologically crazed dictators at home have destroyed the … Continue reading

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Hayek as a critical rationalist

F A Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy  by Peter Boettke of the George Mason  University is hot off the press. The subtitle signals three phases in Hayek’s career, first   fundamental economic theory from roughly 1920 to 1940, then the … Continue reading

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