October 23, 2024

#75 - The Problem of Induction, Relitigated (w/ Tamler Sommers)

1 hour 41 minutes

When Very Bad Wizards meets Very Culty Popperians. We finally decided to have a real life professional philosopher on the pod to call us out on our nonsense, and are honored to have on Tamler Sommers, from the esteemed Very Bad Wizards podcast, to argue with us about the Problem of Induction. Did Popper solve it, or does his proposed solution, like all the other attempts, "fail decisively"?

(Warning: One of the two hosts maaay have revealed their Popperian dogmatism a bit throughout this episode. Whichever host that is - they shall remain unnamed - apologizes quietly and stubbornly under their breath.)

Check out Tamler's website, his podcast (Very Bad Wizards), or follow him on twitter (@tamler).

We discuss

What is the problem of induction?

Whether regularities really exist in nature

The difference between certainty and justification

Popper's solution to the problem of induction

If whiskey will taste like orange juice next week

What makes a good theory?

Why prediction is secondary to explanation for Popper

If science and meditiation are in conflict

The boundaries of science

References

Very Bad Wizards episode on induction

The problem of induction, by Wesley Salmon

Hume on induction

Errata

Vaden mentions in the episode how "Einstein's theory is better because it can explain earth's gravitational constant". He got some of the details wrong here - it's actually the inverse square law, not the gravitational constant. Listen to Edward Witten explain it much better here.

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If you are a Very Bad Wizards listener, hello! We're exactly like Tamler and David, except younger. Come join the Cult of Popper over at [email protected]

Image credit: From this Aeon essay on Hume. Illustration by Petra Eriksson at Handsome Frank.

Special Guest: Tamler Sommers.

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By Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani