Re: Aether is the empty space in which the Universe sits

From: Ilja Schmelzer (q6867901_at_mailstore.fernuni-hagen.de)
Date: 08/30/04 

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 12:39:17 +0200

"robert j. kolker" <nowhere@nowhere.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:2pgc7bFk2lniU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Ilja Schmelzer wrote:
> > This question is for me only secondary: It gives me a strong tool to
rule
> > out false theories. You are, of course, free to define questions which
> > are relevant for you yourself.
> And that is -all- we can do. Rule out false theories by a refuting
> experiment. Every general theory contains a universally quantified
> postulate over an infinite domain. Such a postulate cannot be
> empirically verified. It would require an infinite number of operations.

Agreement. But we can reject theories for other reasons too:
Lower empirical content (Popper), unnecessary complexity,
missing explanatory power, uglyness, all this relative to its competitors.

And if a given set of fields has a natural and simple interpretation
as fields describing some sort of condensed matter, this is something
with high explanatory power. Not all field theories allow an
ether interpretation - but all ether theories define field theories,
simply by forgetting their ether interpretation.

Ilja

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