Friedman’s methodology predated and developed independently from Popper’s

Evidence

Popper and Friedman were founding members of the Mont Pelerin Society, a meeting place of opponents of postwar statist collectivism set up in April 1947 by the free-market economist Friedrich von Hayek. (The society was named after the site of the society’s ten-day inaugural meeting, a gathering that Friedman later said “marked the beginning of my involvement in the political process.”L9) Friedman himself certainly sees a similarity between his and Popper’s stances. “My position is, essentially, the same as Popper’s,” he says, “though it was developed independently… I met Popper in 1947, at the first meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, but I had already developed all of these ideas before then.” — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 56

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim of independent development is interesting — worth checking in methodologist literature whether it holds.
• XREF: connects to: Popper equated natural-science method with scientific rationality itself — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2410; Friedman’s methodology defended perfect competition by prioritizing aggregate prediction over individual descriptive accuracy. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 407; Friedman judged hypotheses solely by predictive capacity, not by realism of assumptions — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 405

Broader Connections

• Friedman judged hypotheses solely by predictive capacity, not by realism of assumptions #expands (0.90) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 405
• Friedman’s methodology defended perfect competition by prioritizing aggregate prediction over individual descriptive accuracy. #expands (0.85) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 407
• Popper equated natural-science method with scientific rationality itself #qualifies (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2410