Neo-pragmatism The pragmatism of Richard Rorty Pragmatism, which established itself in the United States as the dominant current before the Second World War, suffered a long eclipse due to the dominance of the analytical style, but is experiencing a revival, … Read More
(Bertrand Russell in 1957. Credit: Anefo, Wikipedia) The tenets of idealism have been questioned time and time again since its emergence, and the criticisms leveled at it are as varied as are the different forms of idealism. In England, the … Read More
Animal interests The philosopher Raymond Frey, in disagreement with Peter Singer, nevertheless places himself like the latter within the framework of the utilitarianism of preferences. In Interests and Rights (1980), Frey postulates that animals have no interests. Indeed, according to … Read More
Critics of economists Economics has undergone a paradigm shift since the end of the 19th century with the triumph of neoclassical theory. This introduced a break with the classical national economy on which Marx’s analysis was based and which consists … Read More
Marc Bloch made the following criticism in The Historian’s Craft: ”It would still be annoying to see historians encumbering their observations with foreign expressions like those authors of rustic novels who, by their use of provincialisms, slip into a jargon … Read More
Thomas Kuhn criticized falsifiability because it characterized “the entire scientific enterprise in terms that apply only to its occasional revolutionary parts,” (Kuhn 1970) and it cannot be generalized. In Kuhn’s view, a delimitation criterion must refer to the functioning of … Read More
The refutation of the animal-machine hypothesis can be made by the comparison between the organization of machines and living beings. For this it is possible to rely on the definition of living being developed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck notes that … Read More
Technological content Unlike terms like HTML 4.01, indicating a specific technology, or Internet2 (with which it should not be confused and designating a consortium), Web 2.0 has no precise definition by consensus. The changes he designates do the result from … Read More
Conspicuous consumption The term conspicuous consumption is often used critically to describe the tendency of people to identify strongly with the goods and services they consume, especially branded products, indicating a high social status (expensive jewelry, big car, etc.). The … Read More
As advertising and marketing efforts become increasingly ubiquitous in modern Western societies, the industry has come under criticism of groups such as AdBusters via culture jamming which criticizes the media and consumerism using advertising’s own techniques. The industry is accused … Read More
