All in summary
An ongoing list of the concepts, methods, and heuristics used by the characters of Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery, by Imre Lakatos. This is what I would have found useful the first time reading Proofs and Refutations, and I hope you find it useful too.
Chapter 1, §4 focuses on methods for responding to global counterexamples of a proof.
An ongoing list of the concepts, methods, and heuristics used by the characters of Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery, by Imre Lakatos. This is what I would have found useful the first time reading Proofs and Refutations, and I hope you find it useful too.
Chapter 1, §§1-3 focus on a proposed proof for the Descartes-Euler conjecture (the Cauchy proof) and types of counterexamples.
Notes & Reflections on Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior, and Institutions (2nd Ed.) by Kenneth A. Shepsle, Chapters 9 and 10 on ‘Collective Action’ and ‘Public Goods’.
Why are public goods and services so tied up with private contractors and private money? Some game theory…
I find later-Wittgenstein more convincing than Carnap and the Vienna Circle where their views disagree about metaphysics and language. Yet as I am sympathetic to the idea that a thoughtful coordination of philosophy and science can be fruitful, I am glad to see some compatibility among later-Wittgenstein and Carnap’s views in “On Explication”.
I compare Russell's response to skepticism about material objects in The Problems of Philosophy (1912) and Our Knowledge of the External World (1914). Notably, his view on simplicity changes between the two books.
The Madisonian model of American government is why mass movements in America tend to get co-opted and folded into institutional politics. This weakens mass movements, and is an issue if we want anything resembling a revolution in the United States. I examine what possibilities we have going forward to a Left American Revolution.
THE Second IN A SERIES RESPONDING TO THE FOUR ONLINE 'ABCS OF SOCIALISM’ LECTURES.
I SUMMARIZE AND RESPOND TO Adaner Usmani’s ARGUMENT about how leftists should consider the role of human nature in society.
David Hume provides a wonderfully structured argument about the nature of promises and the obligations they create between us. He argues that promissory obligation is incoherent without a history of pragmatic social conventions. This essay summarizes his argument and gives additional comments in the context of Margaret Gilbert’s book Rights and Demands.
I take a consequentialist approach to measuring the success of war-crime trials. Trials analyzed include the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Nuremburg Trials, and those after the Rwandan genocide.
Introduced in the essay is the concept of closure: a desirable end to conflict among all parties involved, arrived at by successfully addressing the ideological/societal rift at the root of the initial conflict.
Self-referential and negating, the classic Liar's Paradox creates a contradiction that challenges our basic intuitions of semantics and syntax.
I present an often overlooked interpretation of the same statement, and similar, revealing problems arise.
The first in a series responding to the four online 'ABCs of Socialism' lectures.
I summarize and respond to Vivek Chibber's argument that Leftists need to refocus on the working class as a righteous and practical issue.
