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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: Elliot
The Most Important Improvement to Popperian Philosophy of Science
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David Deutsch on Respect for Right and Wrong
From the Taking Children Seriously email list (now located here) Someone wrote on 17/1/01 7:10 pm: Earlier I wrote asking about the TCS understanding of the word coercion.I appreciate all the comments that came back and I think I have … Continue reading
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Anti-Discrimination Laws
Some interesting discussion about anti-discrimination laws here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1375774 (The posts by xenophanes are me.) Excerpt: Fundamentally, it’s irrational to force people who disagree with you to do things your way if they don’t see why it’s best — to make … Continue reading
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Deduction is a Mistake
Deduction is a bad idea which Popper accepted. The idea is that certain arguments are “deductively valid”. A valid argument is one such that if the premises are true then the conclusion MUST be true. Deduction thus has an anti-fallibilist … Continue reading
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Popper and the Social Sciences
Rafe discussed “Popper’s legacy in economics and the social sciences”. The most important principle of this sort is that disagreements should be resolved rationally. That means we do not assume which idea is right, especially not based on attributes of … Continue reading
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Popper Interview about God
Popper Interview Popper says “I don’t know whether God exists or not.” and ” I do think that all men, including myself, are religious.” Also “I would be glad if God were to exist, to be able to concentrate my … Continue reading
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Corroboration
When we corroborate a theory (i.e., it passes tests), the theory is better in some way. This is a dangerous statement because being better sounds like it’s more supported. The way it’s better is this: it is now harder to … Continue reading
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Best Survives Criticism
David Deutsch wrote: He chose ‘two years’ because it survived this criticism best of all the propositions he chose. What does this mean? How can a theory partially survive criticism?
Posted in epistemology
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Comments on Mises and Gordon on Popper
Rafe wrote: In a nutshell, Popper shifted the focus from the justification of beliefs to the formation of critical preferences for publicly articulated (objective) theories. Care to offer a defense of critical preferences from my criticism? Context Criticism
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Critical Preferences and Strong Arguments
Following up on my post about critical preferences, I have written a criticism of them and an alternative view. I posted it on my website. Please feel free to comment or reply here.
Posted in epistemology
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