Evolutionary Theory Of Knowledge Research Articles

Popper's ‘Rationality Principle’ and ‘Epistemic’ Rationality: an Attempt at Reconciliation

ABSTRACT ‘Situational Analysis’ (SA) constitutes Popper's methodological proposal for the social sciences. There is an apparent inconsistency in the fact that, on the one hand, Popper maintains that we learn by ‘trial and error-elimination’ and, on the other hand, he declares that his ‘Rationality Principle’ (RP) has nothing to do with the epistemic account of rationality implicit in his ‘evolutionary theory of knowledge and learning’. We claim that the most likely reason Popper makes such claim is that his formulation of SA is better interpreted as an extension of his view of the ‘method’ of history to the theoretical social sciences. In light of it we argue that the implementation of SA in the latter may require the adoption of an expanded ‘Rationality Principle’ (ERP) whereby scientists assume that individual actors exhibit both practical and epistemic rationality. We identify two variants of SA we denote as SA1 and SA2 according to whether they are grounded on ERP or RP respectively and discuss some approaches in the social sciences that are representative of each of them. We conclude that the adoption of ERP helps mitigating the absence of social interaction in Popper's formulation of SA.

Popper’s Evolutionary Therapy to Meno’s Paradox

Meno’s paradox raises serious challenges against most fundamental epistemological quest regarding the possibility of inquiry and discovery. In his response, Socrates proposes the theory of anamnesis and his ingenious distinction between doxa and episteme. But, he fails in his attempt to solve the paradox and some recent responses have also not succeeded in settling it, satisfactorily. We shall argue that epistemological issues approached in a Darwinian spirit offer a therapeutic resolution without rejecting the basic tenets of Plato’s epistemology. Drawing from Popper’s evolutionary theory of knowledge, Darwinism is regarded as a metaphysical research program, rather than using it to collapse Plato’s metaphysics into biology.

An Evolutionary Theory of Knowledge: Knowledge's Structure, Generation, Transmission and Significance to Social Theory

An Evolutionary Theory of Knowledge: Knowledge's Structure, Generation, Transmission and Significance to Social Theory

Application Holy Wars or a New Reformation: A Fugue on the Theory of Knowledge

Application Holy Wars or a New Reformation: A Fugue on the Theory of Knowledge

Life after Newton: an ecological metaphysic

Ecology may indeed be ‘deep’, as some have maintained, but perhaps much of the mystery surrounding it owes more simply to the dissonance between ecological notions and the fundamentals of the modern synthesis. Comparison of the axioms supporting the Newtonian world view with those underlying the organicist and stochastic metaphors that motivate much of ecosystems science reveals strong disagreements—especially regarding the nature of the causes of events and the scalar domains over which these causes can operate. The late Karl Popper held that the causal closure forced by our mechanical perspective on nature frustrates our attempts to achieve an ‘evolutionary theory of knowledge.’ He suggested that the Newtonian concept of ‘force’ must be generalized to encompass the contingencies that arise in evolutionary processes. His reformulation of force as ‘propensity’ leads quite naturally to a generalization of Newton’s laws for ecology. The revised tenets appear, however, to exhibit more scope and allow for change to arise from within a system. Although Newton’s laws survive (albeit in altered form) within a coalescing ecological metaphysic, the axioms that Enlightenment thinkers appended to Newton’s work seem ill-suited for ecology and perhaps should yield to a new and coherent set of assumptions on how to view the processes of nature.

Storytellers and Scenario Spinners: Some Reflections on Religion and Science in Light of a Pragmatic, Evolutionary Theory of Knowledge

Asserting that both scientists and religious thinkers are involved in telling stories about the past and spinning scenarios about the future, I first compare and contrast the purposes of scientific and religious storytelling. Then, in light of some recent work on brain and language evolution, I offer a possible story about how humans might have become storytellers. Finally, I discuss how religious stories might be evaluated pragmatically and even scientifically by developing Lakatosian‐type research programs.

Concepts and approaches in evolutionary epistemology. Towards an evolutionary theory of knowledge edited by Franz M. Wuketits. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1984

Concepts and approaches in evolutionary epistemology. Towards an evolutionary theory of knowledge edited by Franz M. Wuketits. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1984

Concept and approaches in evolutionary epistemology: Towards an evolutionary theory of knowledge

Concept and approaches in evolutionary epistemology: Towards an evolutionary theory of knowledge