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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
Justificationism and philosophy of mind
I have read some philosophy of mind over the past couple of weeks and have come across some odd justificationist arguments. You know the ones I mean: ‘I can be certain that I think X’, or ‘When I am having … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology
6 Comments
Scientific realism debate
There is currently a raging debate among philosophers of science about “scientific realism” – this is the idea that current scientific theories more or less accurately describe the world. Some philosophers say they do; some say they don’t. The date … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, science
6 Comments
Six varieties of inductivism…
…and why they are all wrong headed. Inductivism is the theory that there is a process called induction that takes evidence and uses it to produce knowledge (useful or explanatory information). I have recently found out that inductivists like to … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, science
4 Comments
Explanation versus justification
Many people conflate explanation and justification. An explanation is a theory about why something happened or why we should do one thing rather than another. A justification is a story about why we are right, or probably right, to adopt … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology
12 Comments