Skip to main content

Critical Rationalism as Therapy

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 331 Accesses

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 325))

Abstract

A personal, intellectual, and philosophical report of how Joseph Agassi’s critical rationalism helped me overcome the drawbacks of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Faithful to the view that improving shortcomings is more effective than hopelessly attempting to demonstrate benefits, Agassi argues against applying pressure rather than in favor of reducing it.

  2. 2.

    Clifford Ambrose Truesdell III (1919–2000), professor of rational mechanics at Johns Hopkins University, was the founder and chief editor of the Archive for History of Exact Science, as well as of the Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis.

  3. 3.

    On that occasion, however, I had not done the job properly. In my early draft, I had copied most of a paragraph from MacLachlan’s nice 1973 article, but in my final article I inadvertently omitted to credit the author. I noticed with distress my oversight only after my article had been published, and all I could do was to write to Professor MacLachlan, apologize, and acknowledge my mistake.

References

  • Agassi, Joseph. 1963. Towards an historiography of science. The Hague: Mouton. Reprinted 1967, Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1990. Peer review: A personal report. Methodology and Science 2: 171–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. The hazard called education: Essays, reviews, and dialogues on education from forty-five years, ed. R. Swartz and S. Richmond. Rotterdam: Sense.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drake, Stillman. 1973. Galileo’s experimental confirmation of horizontal inertia: Unpublished manuscripts (Galileo Gleanings XXII). Isis 64: 290–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koyré, Alexandre. 1992 reprint. Metaphysics and measurement. Yverdon: Gordon and Breach.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, Thomas S. 1966. The structure of scientific revolutions. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. Logic of discovery of psychology of research? In Criticism and the growth of knowledge, ed. I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave, 1–23. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacLachlan, James. 1973. A test of an ‘Imaginary’ experiment of Galileo’s. Isis 64: 374–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popper, Karl R. 1966. The open society and its enemies. 2 vols, 5th ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segre, Michael. 1980. The role of experiment in Galileo’s physics. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 23: 227–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1991. In the wake of Galileo. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1994. Peano’s axioms in their historical context. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 48: 201–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. Applying Popperian didactics. In Rethinking Popper, ed. Z. Parusniková and R.S. Cohen, 389–395. Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015. Higher education and the growth of knowledge: A historical outline of aims and tensions. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Settle, Thomas. 1961. An experiment in the history of science. Science 133: 19–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snow, Charles Percy. 2001. The two cultures. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Alex Arbel , Nimrod Bar-Am , Natti Laor , and my wife Ursula, for reading early drafts of this article and suggesting improvements, and to Alison Moffat for improving my English.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Segre .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Segre, M. (2017). Critical Rationalism as Therapy. In: Bar-Am, N., Gattei, S. (eds) Encouraging Openness. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 325. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57669-5_40

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics