Category Archives: Philosophy

Comments on Feyerabend’s ‘Against Method’ III: Intellectual Support for Mainstream Economics

Posted on December 30, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

If you read Feyerabend’s Against Method closely and you take the argument seriously a rather unnerving fact comes to light: namely, that the argument contained therein lends full intellectual support to mainstream marginalist economics. While the theories of philosophers like, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy | 1 Comment

Bertrand Russell’s Teapot and His Misreading of George Berkeley’s Philosophy

Posted on December 24, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

I recently picked up Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy to have a look at the argument he makes against the philosophy of George Berkeley. Frankly, I have never liked Russell. He is a clear writer — and a convincing … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | 3 Comments

Comments on Feyerabend’s ‘Against Method’ II: Revolutions in Subjectivity

Posted on December 23, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

In my previous commentary on Feyerabend’s book I criticised him for being incoherent in his understanding of the relationship between the philosophy of science that he is actually expounding and his own philosophy which he thinks to be materialist but … Continue reading →

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Comments on Feyerabend’s ‘Against Method’ I: Real Materialism Versus Marxian Materialism

Posted on December 22, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

I am currently rereading Paul Feyerabend’s excellent book Against Method. It’s a very good book and I find myself in agreement with an awful lot that is in it. I have noted, however, that the argument suffers in some places … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | 12 Comments

Capital Sins: To What End Should Economic Life Be Directed?

Posted on November 7, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

Victoria Chick published an interesting paper in the journal Economic Thought on the World Economic Association website entitled Economics and the Good Life: Keynes and Schumacher. In it she explores what both men thought that the end goal of economics … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Psychology | 1 Comment

Is Real Communication Possible? Berkeley’s Particularism and Lacan’s Semantic Slippage

Posted on November 5, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

I’m currently rereading George Berkeley’s A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge as a friend of mine and I are considering writing a short book on Berkeley in the near future. In it we are hoping to discuss all … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Psychology | 5 Comments

Veblen and Freud on Instincts

Posted on November 1, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

I recently got my hands on a paper by Bill Waller entitled Veblen and Instincts Reconsidered. In the paper Waller discusses the role of ‘instincts’ in Veblen’s work and argues that it is important that those working in the evolutionary … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Psychology | 1 Comment

Historians, Avoid the Mistakes We Economists Made!

Posted on October 26, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

A friend of mine recently drew my attention to something he thought would be of interest to this blog.  Apparently something of a controversy has arisen regarding a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Statistics and Probability | 4 Comments

Epicurean Philosophy as Progenitor to Marginalism

Posted on October 14, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

As is often pointed out marginalist economics tends to be characterised primarily by a couple of distinct axioms that operate ‘under the surface’ to produce its key results. Varoufakis and Ansperger neatly characterise these as: the axiom of methodological individualism; … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Matter and Models

Posted on October 6, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

What if all the world’s inside of your head Just creations of your own? You can live in this illusion You can choose to believe You keep looking but you can’t find the woods While you’re hiding in the trees … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy | 7 Comments