Jerry Kirkpatrick's Blog, page 4

Human Science, Social Science, or Science of Human Action? (part one of a three-part series)(Go to part two)(part three)

For over two centuries, the scientific study of human beings has been given various names, often followed by the word “science”: moral, human, humanistic, social, and cultural. Other suggested names have been the science of human action, or just the humanities. None of these terms should be confused with academic departments in universities or the courses they teach, as these departments and

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Human Science, Social Science, or Science of Human Action? (part one of a three-part series)

For over two centuries, the scientific study of human beings has been given various names, often followed by the word “science”: moral, human, humanistic, social, and cultural. Other suggested names have been the science of human action, or just the humanities. None of these terms should be confused with academic departments in universities or the courses they teach, as these departments and

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A General Theory of Value

Ayn Rand defines value as “that which one acts to gain and/or keep” and applies the concept to all living organisms. A value presupposes answers to the questions “to whom?” (or “what?” in the case of lower living species), and “for what purpose?”* Can we apply this definition to the economic concepts of value and utility, especially as used by the Austrian economists? When I was teaching, I would

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The Components of Our Psychology

This month’s post is an excerpt from my 2019 book Independent Judgment and Introspection, pp. 88–99. Light edits and the omission of some paragraphs and all footnotes have been made.  Core Evaluations. Core evaluations are fundamental subconscious conclusions (evaluations) formed in childhood about ourselves, other people, and the world in general (reality). They are held as self-evident truths

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The Difference between Emotion and Attitude

For many decades social psychologists (1; 2, chap. 1) have viewed attitudes as the central concept that explains motivation. Where do emotions fit in? The two are similar, yet different. Emotions are automatic, psychosomatic responses to evaluations about objects, persons, or events that we judge, based on past knowledge and values, to be beneficial or harmful (Independent Judgment, p. 63). “The

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On Science and the Scientific Method

The purpose of science is to explain and guide, and the method scientists use, in briefest essence, is observation to raise questions followed by frequent testing and trying of alternatives to find correct answers. In a single word, scientific method is conceptualization, the mental process of generalizing to identify universals and applying previously formed universals to understand particular

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How Do We Know Concretes?

To the layperson the title of this post must seem strange. To academics, especially philosophers, the issue for a couple of millennia has been a big deal. Of course we know concretes, says the layperson. We open our eyes and look out at the world—to see specific, individual, concrete people, animals, plants, and things. Reminiscing about our childhood, we can recall many specific, individual

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Two Types of Knowledge: General and Personal

General knowledge, that is, book reading, school learning, and the ability to cite or quote sources at will, does not by itself make us interesting or even a really knowledgeable person. Personal knowledge does, though it often is not even considered knowledge.  Our emotions evoked by general knowledge and more particularly our personal reactions to, and experiences with, all aspects of our lives

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The Two Senses of Self-Esteem and Pride—Moral and Psychological

Self-esteem and pride, respectively, are a moral value and virtue. Both rest on the more fundamental attributes of psychological self-esteem and pride. The two kinds, moral and psychological, interact to produce the degree of self-respect or self-worth that we hold about ourselves.* Self-esteem in the moral sense means holding one’s self as one’s own highest value, which means never sacrificing

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Dictatorship by the Administrative State

In an earlier post, I wrote the following: Bureaucracy encourages a legalistic, rule-bound mentality. It says, in effect, you can only do what has been codified. This leads to the generation of hundreds of thousands of rules and laws to control behavior, coupled with the impossible-to-follow proviso that ignorance of the law is no defense. This is why the bureaucratic state has become the modern

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