“The impartiality of nature to our feelings, beliefs, and desires means that the work of testing and developing scientific theories is insensitive to the ideological background of individual scientists. A scientific theory will characteristically attempt to explain some natural phenomena by producing some general formula or theory covering all the phenomena of that particular type…. [Read More]
Popper on Replication in Science
This is from the Logic of Scientific Discovery, pp. 23-24: Kant was perhaps the first to realize that the objectivity of scientific statements is closely connected with the construction of theories — with the use of hypotheses and universal statements. Only when certain events recur in accordance with rules or regularities, as is the case… [Read More]
Herbert Gintis on Karl Popper: “Go Get’em Karl!”
Herbert Gintis is a game theorist, and the author of what is, in my opinion, the best beginner-book on Game Theory out there: Game Theory Evolving. Interestingly, he is also the author of a boat-load of Amazon book reviews. Here’s one he wrote for the book, The Myth of the Framework, a collection of Karl… [Read More]
Data-Constraining Theorizing – Colin Camerer Quote of the Day
“No science — especially the “hard” sciences economists envy most, such as physics, chemistry and biology — has flourished without a very large does of data-constraining theorizing.” — Colin Camerer From the book, Behavioral Game Theory. One of the signs of an immature science is the lack of either a robust theoretical (usually a euphemism… [Read More]
Science Is Wrong? On The Under-Determination Of Fact – Samurai Strength Ep. 12
Does the sun revolve around the earth? No. Why did people believe such a crazy notion? Were they stupid? Of course not. The trouble with science is that it just doesn’t give us the level of certainty we humans seem to obsessively (and desperately) want. But don’t let that cause you to despair. Quite frankly, I… [Read More]