Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jeffrey C Alexander and the logic of sociological research

Jeffrey C Alexander is a leading sociologist in theUS, an ambitious and industrious scholar who set out to make a serious mark in the business. He wrote a four-volume opus early in his career to lay the foundations for more … Continue reading

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Standard misrepresentations and invalid criticisms of Popperism

1. The falsifiability criterion is about meaning. 2. Failure to draw the distinction between falsifiability (a matter of logic and the form of statements) and falsification (a practical matter). 3. Scientists don’t practice falsification.

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Giddens on Popper and positivism

Giddens on the postpositivistic philosophy of science in Bottomore and Nisbet (eds) A History of Sociological Analysis, Basic Books, 1978. In the Questia library. After a lengthy account of the progress of positivism in the philosophy of science from theVienna Circleof … Continue reading

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Major Popper biography in progress

When Popper’s longtime NZ friend Colin Simkin became seriously ill in the late 1990s a man flew into Sydney to interview him for a Popper biography. Brian Boyd came too late because Simkin was too ill to see him. A … Continue reading

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Peter Boettke on 1985 as a defining year for Austrian economics

This year the Review of Austrian Economics did a retrospective on  Don Lavoie and the “hermeneutic” or “interpretive” turn that he initiated in the mid 1980s. Peter Boettke and David Prychitko explained why this was important and why 1985 could have been … Continue reading

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Rethinking climate change

For some time I remained staunchly agnostic on the science of climate change, fortified by the fact that nothing that Australia does will make a difference, either directly to the climate or in leading the world. In some ways we … Continue reading

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Evidence

We do not have direct experience of physical things: evidence is theory-laden. That is well-understood and generally regarded as true. Much less appreciated is that we do not have direct experience of abstract things either: self-evidence is theory-laden too. The … Continue reading

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Objective and Objectivist Dogmas

Critical rationalism is sometimes mistaken to be little more than a call to be critical. Some object that advocacy of the critical attitude is hardly unique to critical rationalism; every first year philosophy student is instructed to be critical of … Continue reading

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New CR site to watch!

Thanks for the feed from Daniel Barnes who said to read a great article here. It  is the site of our new contributor ‘d’. Welcome to the party d! Keep an eye on this site!! Good to have the disgusting … Continue reading

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See the Problem?

I wrote this as a quick comment on d’s blog, but then the post disappeared for some reason. Anyway, I thought I’d share here.

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