tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post6410806763590087298..comments2024-03-28T02:54:46.537-04:00Comments on The TOF Spot: It's Only a TheoryTheOFloinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-35000909811443455252012-02-05T02:48:38.069-05:002012-02-05T02:48:38.069-05:00No, by not performing interpretive dance, science ...No, by not performing interpretive dance, science has sure done us all a great boon.Jeremiahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17009592695869119717noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-4533049642084262352012-02-01T13:25:42.872-05:002012-02-01T13:25:42.872-05:00Well, science has failed the people who thought th...Well, science has failed the people who thought that science could explain everything, or at least everything important (or, rather, they think that science has failed them because their faculties of critical thought already failed them previously when they were developing their expectations for science).The Deucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09664665914768916965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-67127045243976984762012-01-31T18:41:46.628-05:002012-01-31T18:41:46.628-05:00Excuse me. It's "Trials and Errors: Why S...Excuse me. It's "Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us." It links to a Wired article.<br /><br />The drama of it all....Bansheehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12594214770417497135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-76442614831277577312012-01-31T18:34:39.841-05:002012-01-31T18:34:39.841-05:00Slashdot linked to a story today about how science...Slashdot linked to a story today about how science has now discovered that causes and facts are different things, and has concluded that therefore nothing can be figured out at all. (The headline is "Why Science Has Failed Us.")<br /><br />Nobody seems to have figured out that this is like complaining because science doesn't paint the Mona Lisa and perform interpretive dance, science has failed us.Bansheehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12594214770417497135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-88391746861549858802012-01-30T12:28:40.102-05:002012-01-30T12:28:40.102-05:00Now, I will again remind folks that you don't ...<i>Now, I will again remind folks that you don't have to buy the argument; but you ought to know what the argument actually is in order to reject it.</i><br /><br />What makes Coyne's modal confusion so embarrassing in this case is that you don't even need to understand Thomas's particular argument to know that "necessary being" means "non-contingent being" in philosophy. That's one of the few terms used by Thomas that *haven't* changed common meaning in the intervening centuries, and which is still commonly employed even by non-Thomists.<br /><br />Modern philosophers still bring up the concept all the time in the context of how a necessary being is one that "exists in all possible worlds" and so forth. And even if you don't understand the phrase the very first time you hear it, it should still be possible to infer what they mean by it with only a minimal amount of reading and reflection.<br /><br />It really is the philosophical equivalent of "If people evolved from monkeys, there wouldn't be any monkeys anymore!" - ie, it displays such depths of fundamental misconception and ignorance on the topic that it's not even wrong.The Deucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09664665914768916965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-81299159214896100142012-01-30T00:25:37.374-05:002012-01-30T00:25:37.374-05:00But facts do not exist independently of the theori...But facts do not exist independently of the theories. <br />That water is H2O is not a fact in the same way 'Sun rises in the East' is a fact. In fact, the H2O fact only makes sense within the atomistic theory of matter.<br /><br />Thus the fact/theory distinction is more subtle than you make out. Similarly evolution is hardly a basic fact. The basic facts are old bones and fossils found within rock layers. That these old bones and fossils represent ancient and extinct species is a story ie a theory in your terms.Gyanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09941686166886986037noreply@blogger.com