Lars P. Syll

Kathleen Stock and the woke cancel culture that threatens our universities Philosophy professor Kathleen Stock has been actively engaged in ongoing discussions about gender identity and transgender issues for a long time. In these discussions, she has expressed scepticism and concern about certain aspects of transgender ideology, particularly in relation to gender identity and its implications for women’s rights and spaces. Stock has argued that the concept...

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Kathleen Stock och cancelkulturen Filosofiprofessor Kathleen Stock har under lång tid varit engagerad i de pågående diskussionerna om könsidentitet och transrelaterade frågor. I dessa diskussioner har hon uttryckt skepticism och oro över vissa aspekter av transideologi, särskilt i relation till könsidentitet och dess konsekvenser för kvinnors rättigheter och utrymmen. Stock har argumenterat för att konceptet könsidentitet suddar ut betydelsen av biologiskt...

Central fallacies of modern economics To criticise/oppose the current mathematical modelling emphasis is to adopt an antiscience stance. It is not. Mathematics is not essential (or inessential) to science; science involves using tools that are appropriate to the given task. A science of economics is perfectly feasible, and the current emphasis on mathematical modelling in economics serves, given the nature of social reality, mostly to prevent that...

The systemic failures of economic methodologists I argue that economic methodologists failed the economics profession by not actively pointing out to the economics profession or to the general public that, if an economist’s primary goal was to provide policy advice to society, then the standard methodology being used by applied macroeconomists had serious problems. I see methodologists’ failure as a systemic failure because the reason they did not point out...

.[embedded content] Sublime, breathtaking, and absolutely magnificent. A choir of angels touching the depths of my soul.

‘Theoretical cherrypicking’ in economics The proposition that theoretical models are necessary for understanding our economic system does not imply that having some particular theoretical model automatically means that we understand anything useful. If one is creative in choosing the ‘right’ assumptions and reasonably clever, then one can produce all kinds of results … This potentially creates a problem that might be called ‘theoretical cherrypicking.’ In...

‘Approximate truth’ in economics According to this line of defence, all models are false but to some extent ‘approximately true’ – and approximately true models are harmless from the point of view of the realist’s aims … This argument is to a large extent confused. It is correct that there are cases in which a false assumption can indeed be regarded as ‘approximately true’, namely when the assumption concerns the value of a quantitative causal factor …...

There is an element of hypocrisy among DSGE advocates … Long before the advent of DSGE, microeconomic theorists demonstrated that the conditions for the derivation of aggregates from individual choices are so constraining that they cannot possibly be met in a world populated by people. Yet, never to my knowledge have DSGE advocates addressed the issue … For the DSGE advocates, the failure of an opposing approach to adhere to their a priori theoretical presuppositions are...