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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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Category Archives: logic
Goodman vs. Falsifiability
Here are some new thoughts and arguments concerning the problem of induction. More than once, I’ve come across the argument that Goodman’s “new” problem of induction can be solved by appealing to degrees of falsifiability. Recently, I came across the … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, logic
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Does Science Presuppose the Existence of Regularity in Nature?
A popular criticism of Popper’s scientific method is that he “smuggled induction in through the back door.” Contrary to claims of having done away with it altogether, Popper’s proposed method of science actually presupposes induction. Therefore, critics argue, Popper failed … Continue reading
Posted in logic, science
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Critical Rationalism vs. Inductive and Subjective Interpretations of Probability
So I am trying to understand the critical rationalist arguments against the inductive and subjective interpretations of probability. I am not all that familiar with the matter, and so I have likely made some elementary mistakes — feedback is appreciated. … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, logic
74 Comments
A Pancritical Paradox?
In Retreat to Commitment, Bartley characterises a pancritical rationalist as one who, holds all his positions, including his most fundamental standards, goals, and decisions, and his basic philosophical position itself, open to criticism; one who protects nothing from criticism by … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, logic
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Why is the study of deduction important to critical rationalism?
This is a response to a post that was made last May in this blog by Elliot and can be found here. I’m making this a post as opposed to a comment in an attempt to renew interest in this … Continue reading
Posted in logic
28 Comments
Review: Popper, Otto Selz and the Rise of Evolutionary Epistemology by Michel ter Hark
“Popper, Otto Selz and the Rise of Evolutionary Epistemology” by Michel ter Hark is historically interesting and philosophically provocative. Continue reading
Posted in biology, epistemology, evolution, logic, science
61 Comments
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Posted in epistemology, logic
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Popper on epistemological naturalism
This is a quote from Popper in Logic of Scientific Discovery, Section 10: This view, according to which methodology is an empirical science in its turn—a study of the actual behaviour of scientists, or of the actual procedure of ‘science’—may be described … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, logic, quote, science
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Criticism of Salmon on Popper
Wesley Salmon wrote a critique of critical rationalism in which he claimed this it could not explain why it is rational to use the predictions of scientific theories to help us make decisions. First, note that Salmon does not and … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, logic, science
68 Comments
Karl Popper on logic of falsification
The falsifying mode of inference here referred to — the way in which the falsification of a conclusion entails the falsification of the system from which it is derived — is the modus tollens of classical logic. It may be … Continue reading