Lars P. Syll

Realism and antirealism in social science The situation started to change in the 1960s, when antirealism wenton the rampage in the social studies community as well as in Anglo-American philosophy. This movement seems to have had two sources, one philosophical, the other political. The former was a reaction against positivism, which was (mistakenly but conveniently) presented as objectivist simply because it shunned mental states. I submit that the...

Soon after joining the Budget Committee, Kelton the deficit owl played a game with the staffers. She would first ask if they would wave a magic wand that had the power to eliminate the national debt. They all said yes. Then Kelton would ask, “Suppose that wand had the power to rid the world of US Treasuries. Would you wave it?” This question—even though it was equivalent to asking to wipe out the national debt—“drew puzzled looks, furrowed brows, and pensive expressions....

Comment l’extrême droite a préparé l’insurrection au Capitole .[embedded content]

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Bayesianism — a scientific cul-de-sac The bias toward the superficial and the response to extraneous influences on research are both examples of real harm done in contemporary social science by a roughly Bayesian paradigm of statistical inference as the epitome of empirical argument. For instance the dominant attitude toward the sources of black-white differential in United States unemployment rates (routinely the rates are in a two to one ratio) is...

The Nobel prize that isn’t really a Nobel prize .[embedded content] And if you want to get that prize in economics — and want to be on the sure side — yours truly would suggest you move to Chicago. Out of the 86 laureates that have been awarded “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel,” more than a third have been affiliated to The University of Chicago. The world is really a very small place when it comes to  economics …...

Professor svarar lättkränkta Malmöstudenter Min främsta uppgift är att förmedla kunskap, inte att skydda studenter från obehag. Samtidigt finns det ett pedagogiskt problem i det, för om studenterna upplever alltför stort obehag, kommer det att stå i vägen för deras och deras medstudenters lärande. Det gör min situation svårlösbar: Hur skall jag kunna undervisa om ett visuellt material utan att använda bilder? Hur skall vi lära oss att identifiera och...

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Yours truly among top economics influencers to follow Mainstream economics has sadly made economics increasingly irrelevant to the understanding of the real world. Trying to contribute in making economics a more realist and relevant science, yours truly launched this blog in March 2011. Now, ten years later and with millions of page views on it, yours truly is — together with people like e.g. Paul Krugman, Nate Silver, Dani Rodrik, Thomas Piketty, Steve...