On Sun, 17 Dec 1995, Andrew Moreno wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Dec 1995, Dr. Ivan Blanco wrote:
>
> > I think that one of our major problems in our world comes from the belief
> > that things, all things can be solved through science.
>
> I agree.
>
> > They can't see any unusual
> > events becuast they want everything to be proven and supported by data and
> > the scientific analysis of that data. There things of the spirit, things
> > that are related to hunched people have, or just "ideas" that can solve
> > problems too, but cannot be scientifixally tested.
>
> I think this is information that falls outside of the boundaries
> of the scientific method.
You know guys, this is right near my theme about story versus law.
If something happens only once in the history of the universe, how can I
_know_ anything of its causes? What statistical analyses can I perform on
a singular event? What is the information content of "law-abiding"
events? What is the information content of exceptions?
John Stuart Mill, I believe, devised the phrase "inductive logic" in
counterpoise to "deductive logic". But inductive logic is not logic at
all. All the efforts I have ever seen to define it leave me with either
statistical formulas or human pattern-extraction, models, mindsets, and
paradigms. Neither of these is logic.
I've said before, only half joking, that science depends, crucially and
critically, on bad logic: trying to reason backward from consequence to
antecedent. This can help me to choose between conflicting theories; it
cannot generate theories. But for centuries now the popular stereotype of
scientific research has been just that: scientists research into facts and
learn theories from facts. The discipline of science teaches us to be
"objective". Bunk.
Kuhn's book, by the time it appeared, was long overdue.
Happy holidays.
--
Regards
Jim Michmerhuizen jamzen@world.std.com
web residence at http://world.std.com/~jamzen/
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The most abjectly pitiful fantasy of all is in these words:
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