Editing Principle of rationality (section)

==Popper==
{{See also|Situational logic}}
Popper called for social science to be grounded in what he called ''situational analysis'' or ''[[situational logic]]''. This requires building models of social situations which include individual actors and their relationship to social institutions, e.g. markets, legal codes, bureaucracies, etc. These models attribute certain aims and information to the actors.<ref>{{cite web|title=William Gorton. Popper's Realism, the Rationality Principle and Rational Choice Theory: Discussion of "The Rationality Principle Idealized" by Boaz Miller|date=16 February 2012 |url=https://social-epistemology.com/2012/02/16/william-gorton-poppers-realism-the-rationality-principle-and-rational-choice-theory-discussion-of-the-rationality-principle-idealized-by-boaz-miller/|accessdate=22 April 2017}}</ref> This forms the 'logic of the situation', the result of reconstructing meticulously all circumstances of an historical event. The 'principle of rationality' is the assumption that people are instrumental in trying to reach their goals, and this is what drives the model. Popper believed that this model could be continuously refined to approach the objective truth.

Popper called his principle of rationality ''nearly empty'' (a technical term meaning without [[empirical content]]) and ''strictly speaking false'', but nonetheless ''tremendously useful''.<ref>Karl R. Popper, ''The Myth of Framework'', London (Routledge) 1994, chap. 8, sect. 12.</ref> These remarks earned him a lot of criticism because seemingly he had swerved from his famous ''[[Logic of Scientific Discovery]]''.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Among the many philosophers having discussed Popper's principle of rationality from the 1960s up to now are [[Noretta Koertge]], R. Nadeau, [[Viktor Vanberg|Viktor J. Vanberg]], [[Hans Albert]], E. Matzner, [[Ian C. Jarvie]], Mark A. Notturno, [[John Wettersten]], Ian C. Böhm.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}