Re: Announcing A New Unifying Principle of the Evolutionary



"Perplexed in Peoria" jimmenegay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:-


> > > Announcing A New Unifying Principle of the Evolutionary Sciences:
> > > The biota (the sum of all lifeforms) is a naturally occurring
> purposeful
> > > entity that continually calculates the design (morphology) and
> > > distribution
> > > (location) of it's constituent parts (lifeforms) that will maximize
> the
> > > probability that life will survive into eternity..

> > JE:
> > Please provide an excluded event to this "new unifying principle". This
> > remains essential because without one the scientific process cannot test
> it
> > to refutation.


> The extinction of all Earth-originated life would tend to refute this
> hypothesis. However, there is a curious problem with applying Poppers
> epistemology to this particular experiment. If the hypothesis IS
> empirically refuted, there will be no scientists left alive to witness
> and record the refutation! (Therefore, it is irrefutable!)
> I believe that this a a variant of the Weak Anthropic Principle.

JE:-
The "extinction of all Earth-originated life would tend to refute this
hypothesis" and however, all other theories on the table. A refutation that
applies to all theories on the able is less useful than a refutation that
only applies to just one of them. Quite often a refutation applies in such a
universal way that there will be "no scientists left alive to witness and
record the refutation" because for them to be able to do so would present an
absolute contradiction (Epimenides Paradox which I have referred to here on
a number of different occasions). Because any valid theory of science is
based on some NON random process it has to be unique is a particular way
because all random processes are the same. Critical propositions from
refutable theories will conform to the traditional square of opposition
provided by the ancient Greeks (which I have posted here on a number of
occasions) allowing a _unique_ contradiction for each theory. If ever that
contradiction is empirically verified then that theory stands refuted while
at the same time the absolutely opposed theory stands verified.

One of the problems of Popper's epistemology for the sciences is separating
a refutation from just a non verification where only the refutation is
definitive. This can also be illustrated using traditional square of
opposition:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/square/

The square has four corners where each represents four propositions of the
general types: A,E,I and O.

Type A(All S are P) :e.g. all genes are selected at the organism level.

Type E(No S is P) :e.g. no genes are selected at the organism level.

Type I(Some S are P) :e.g. some genes are selected at the organism level.


Type O(Some S are not P):e.g. some genes are not selected at the organism
level


Note that the A,E,I,O, propositions could be validly represented as Venn
diagrams (sets): http://www.cs.uni.edu/~campbell/stat/venn.html

The subject S is "genes" and the predicate P is "selected at the organism
level".

CONTRADICTIONS:
The only two CONTRADICTIONS that exist represent absolute opposing
propositions which are represented DIAGONALLY, i.e. A contradicts O and I
contradicts E.

1) A contradicts O: All genes are selected at the organism level (all S are
P) contests some genes are not selected at the organism level (some S are
not P).

2) I contradicts E: No gene is selected at the organism level (no S are P)
contests some genes are selected at the organism level (some S are P).

Therefore an epistemology for the testable sciences can represented thus:

i) A non verifies E and E non verifies A
ii) A refutes O and O refutes E
iv) A verifies I and I verifies A



Regards,

John Edser
Independent Researcher

edser@xxxxxxxxxx




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