Category Archives: epistemology

Interesting! I like to think of Popper as an argumentative carpenter and moralist! A complimentary review of  The Myth of the Framework. And more.  

People who  learned their evolutionary theory from the cartoonist Gary Larson will recall pictures of life emerging from the sea to colonise the land. This was a difficult transition and possibly the first life forms that made the journey were … Continue reading →

Scanning old posts on the site I came upon a reference to a CR fellow traveller, Justin Cruickshank. Check out his website for publications of interest. I would really like authors to get in touch and tell me when they … Continue reading →

Phillip Kitcher is one of the stars in the philosophical firmament. Born in London in 1947, he took a degree in maths and the history and philosophy of science at Cambridge and a doctorate in HPS at Princeton where he … Continue reading →

Ancient texts in unreadable languages have been cracked by picking up a handful of key words so that a pattern can be found. Much the same can happen in solving a murder mystery. Remember the puzzle books with complex line … Continue reading →

Suppose that every problem of induction in the past has been solvable. What, then, justifies our expectation that future problems of induction are solvable? Answering induction merely presupposes that induction doesn’t have any unsolvable problems, because if it does have … Continue reading →

A research scientist in New Zealand got in touch to say he enjoyed the Rathouse and when I told him about the Popular Popper series he wrote a very generous review of the Guide to The Logic of Scientific Discovery. … Continue reading →

[NOTE: In the following essay, I attribute views to philosophers without caveats or qualifications. This is mostly for ease of exposition. While I believe philosophers, both professional and amateur, have a tendency toward the views I attribute to them, there … Continue reading →

Nicholas has been very active (actually hyperactive and prolific) for many years, now running into decades, spreading his unique views on the philosophy of science and the need to address practical problems more effectively. We met in Vienna at the … Continue reading →

Presumption — a proposition that must be true if an argument is sound, though not explicitly stated in the premises. Implication — a proposition that cannot be false if an argument is sound, though not explicitly stated in the premises. … Continue reading →