The scientific method is an epistemology

reany_at_asu.edu
Date: 02/02/05 

Date: 2 Feb 2005 14:53:12 -0800

AllYou! wrote:
> <reany@asu.edu> wrote in message
> news:1107371859.780067.271450@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> >
> > AllYou! wrote:
> > > <reany@asu.edu> wrote in message
> > > news:1107323654.015590.226920@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> > >
> > > [snip]
> > >
> > > > I'll rephrase: The set of all empirical knowledge does not
> > logically
> > > > dictate the use of any particular model.
> > >
> > > Empirical:
> > > 1.. Relying on or derived from observation or experiment:
> > > 2.. Verifiable or provable by means of observation or
experiment:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > And since people are free to
> > > > hold to any theory or statement come what may (Quine), people
are
> > free
> > > > to invent any theory they want and claim that is it right.
> > >
> > > But you've never given any credible justification for the claim
that
> > *people are free to
> > > hold to any theory or statement come what may * unless you're
> > claiming that they can do so
> > > despite the invalidation of the theory.
> >
> > Well, I have on many occasions: People can always offer excuses for
why
> > their theory or statement or model that looks false is really not
> > false.
>
> Some people kill babies, but what some people do is not the point.
The credibility of a
> theory is based upon the extent to which the predictions of the
theory have been
> demonstrated through experimentation.

The credibility of any theory in physics is determined by the physics
establishment as a value judgment. What people do DOES count.

[snip]

> > > You claim that science is improperly taught in school, so would
you
> > teach the uninitiated
> > > that any theory is valid?
> >
> > Of course I would, since to be a valid theory is to be a theory
that
> > appears to work well (empirically), and there are hundreds of them
to
> > point to.
>
> No, I said *any theory*. Is any theory valid, or just the ones that
work well? At what
> point does a theory go from working OK to working well?

I'm not answering this question yet again. You want the answer, go look
up validation in the philosophy of physics on line.

[snip]
> > >
> > > > What's important in the philosophy of science is
> > > > that there is no proof that any theory constructed that way is
> > actually
> > > > false.
> > >
> > > What's important to science is that proof has no meaning in
science.
> > There are only
> > > pairings of predictions to observations.
> >
> > And what if the observations that supposedly "falsify" are false
> > negatives. How ya gonna know?
>
> *Know* has no place in science.

When I said last week that the purpose of the scientific method was to
produce scientific knowledge, you agreed contemptuously, as if everyone
knows that from childhood. Well, how can science be about knowledge but
not knowledge one can know? The scientific method is an epistemology!
Patrick

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