Season 1 · Episode 93
Episode 93: Philosophical Theories vs Bad Explanations
The Theory of Anything · Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen
September 17, 20242h 7m
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Show Notes
Can philosophical theories be refuted? What is a bad explanation? Can all theories be made more empirical?
In search of an answer to these questions, Bruce takes a deep dive into what he believes is the correct way to apply “Popper’s ratchet” to metaphysical or philosophical theories. Along the way, Bruce puts forward a generalization of testability he calls “checkability” and explains why “vague-maning” our theories is “worse than dogmatism.”