Trial and Error and the Idea of Progress - Softcover

Madsen Pirie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1911000004 ISBN 13: 9781911000006

Publisher: Adam Smith Institute, 2015

Synopsis

This book is an analysis of progress- its meaning, its constituent elements, the conditions that favour it, and the methods people use to achieve it. Its central theme is that progress implies a closer approach to nominated goals; there must be a target to make progress towards. Alternative attempts to achieve progress are tested against each other, and new attempts are tested against old ones. The ones which prove better than their rivals at achieving progress towards chosen goals are retained, and inferior alternatives are discarded. In science, where the goal is to predict that we shall observe, theories are tested competitively against each other, but this is a subset of a more general theory of progress that also covers economic activity, the acquisition of skills, the study of history and the development of societies. Dr Pirie puts the case that humans act purposively to achieve their objectives, testing possible actions against each other to determine which ones best do that. He concludes that progress is made more readily in societies where people are free to pursue separate goals and to test alternative means of achieving them.

About this title

About the Author

Dr Madsen Pirie graduated from Edinburgh, St Andrews and Cambridge Universities. He is President of the free market think tank, the Adam Smith Institute. Before that he was Professor of Philosophy at Hillsdale in Michigan. In the Institute, Dr Pirie was one of the team that pioneered policy innovations such as privatization and the reform of state institutions. He was joint winner of the 'National Free Enterprise Award' of 2010, and was appointed Senior Visiting Fellow in Land Economy at Cambridge. He has published books on political economy and philosophy, and several of children's science fiction; and his hobbies include rocketry and calligraphy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Adam Smith Institute
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1911000004
• ISBN 13: 9781911000006
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 220