DSutton Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 'Science' is saying......"The sun has risen 1,000,000,000 times THEREFORE, it will rise 1,000,000,001 times.' If the sun has risen that many times in the past, it is very likely it will rise again, but it does not necessarily follow. Scientific laws are only scientific probabilities. The law of gravity says if I drop an apple, it will fall to the earth, why?... it has done so before and I have never known it to do otherwise; BUT it does not necessarily follow that it will fall the next time I let it go. To say that it will fall is an act of faith not reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew tucker Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Um ... I have faith that the next time I drop an apple it will fall, and I have good reason to believe that it will do so. I'm not sure what you're getting at there. Can you give me an example of pure reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troutabout Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 My favorite quote is from Sir Francis Bacon - " We prefer to believe that which we PREFER to be true". Al Gore, Nagavary, David Duke - and real del Gesu are being sold from Alabama. "This way to the Great Egress ! " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfjk Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Hi JonCee, quote: A very outdated view of academics, if you don't mind me saying so. Besides, Randi is not, and does not claim to be an academic, as far as I can see.quote: Aprofessorship or a doctorate gives the holder of the title a great deal of prestige. It is well deserved in their field of study. However outside their own subjects some of these Dr's can be unbearable dogmatic. From what I know about Randi, that he is on firm ground when it comes to debunking predictions and the supernatural. If he is not an academic, he has the capability to be one! Regarding Nagyvary's claims about the Strads. I am sure you know that the Oxford and Cambridge scientific community have the scope to study every aspects of them - and they have available instruments to study. Compare Dr Clare Barlow's studies with that of Nagyvary. Cheers Wolfjk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfjk Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Hi, The good philosopher said that the imagination is the limit of human achievement! So the order is: Imagination Philosophy Science Realisation! With a bit of trial and error in between Wolfjk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fellow Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 To leave something to imagine is a beauty by itself. People has a tendency of wanting to win, to explain everything. It reminds me a story of a friend of mine who was trying to have his car fixed. There was a tiny noise of fuel pump of his car. After paid the job of fixing it, my friend still heard the noise. He complained it to the mechanic. The mechanic asked him a few questions. "Does your car run smoothly?" "Do I promise you to fix it if there is any problem of your fuel pump in the future (90 days of warrantee of his work)? " ' "Then why do you worry?" " The noise you hear is all your imagination, I don't hear anything" "Don't let the tank reach below a quarter empty. You don't have a thing to worry" PS. Bottom line is : A good violinist is capable to make a Hopf sound pretty impressive. No audience would demand their money back if the soloist was not using a Strad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSutton Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 "I'm not sure what you're getting at there. Can you give me an example of pure reason?" It is reasonable to say the apple will probably fall, or that it is very likely to fall. It is not reasonable to say that it WILL fall. I am just pointing out what I believe to be the limitation of all human observation and deduction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fellow Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 You are talking a paradox. How do you know there is something there outside of our limitation which is not observable or deductable? (A contradiction by itself) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSutton Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 I don't think what I am saying is a paradox, I was only mentioning the limitation of science. Observation and deduction can only take you so far. Science cannot tell the future, it can only tell you what is likely to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andres Sender Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Miles - for the sake of illustration I will retreat slightly. I haven't the time to argue the point effectively regarding logic, but DSutton's posts provide an excellent example of the sort of issue which science rests upon and cannot itself examine. The argument against certainty was most famously put forward by Hume. Science cannot prove or disprove the Humian proposition that there is no such thing as certainty. Yet on a daily basis science operates on the basis of 'presumed' certainties which set the context for its experiments and procedures, i.e. the speed of light as a standard in a given context, or the relationships between different types of measurements. As another example, science rests upon the 'assumption' that sense perception is valid. Without the validity of sense perception there is no science, you can't 'test' the validity of sense perception without relying on it for your results (the scientist must read the output from the measuring tool at least, etc.) The nature and epistemological status of the 'assumptions' which science relies upon are philosophical issues, and science cannot examine them because it does not exist without them. Philosophical discussions in a forum like this are rather more time-consuming than they are rewarding, so forgive me if I actually manage to resist the temptation from here on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Andreas, Thank you for the post. DSutton's second to the last post is a classical example of fallacy, not science. In human history, science is like the development of language; human thoughts goes first, but it doesn't stop there. I did not initiate the "philosophical" discussion, but could resist responding. quote: I don't think what I am saying is a paradox, I was only mentioning the limitation of science. What you said was actually a fallacy. Will any scientist care for examining known fallacies? The limitation of science is mostly the limitation of minds and available funding. quote: Observation and deduction can only take you so far. Science cannot tell the future, it can only tell you what is likely to happen. If the "mind" can tell the future, science can, too. Do you think philosophers can tell the future? If I recall correctly, Einstein did predict the future. He said something like this, "I don't know what weapons will be used in the Third World War. But I know in the Fourth World War, the weapons will be similar to what was used in the Stone Age." Do you dare or care for testing his hypothesis out? quote: Science cannot prove or disprove the Humian proposition that there is no such thing as certainty. Well, you might want to ask the well-known German scientist, Mr. Heisenberg, about "there is no such thing as certainty". Or you wan to make it easier by trying this out: Driving a car at night until there is no gas in its tank, and see whether or not your car will still move on itself...Is there any certainty? Oh yeah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andres Sender Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Miles--I'm afraid I'm not understanding your point. The last quote is mine, but I am not part of the anti-certainty crowd, and I would hardly imagine Heisenberg to be the antidote to Hume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfxlr Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 quote: Originally posted by: yuen You are talking a paradox. How do you know there is something there outside of our limitation which is not observable or deductable? (A contradiction by itself) the fact that your mind can begin to grasp that ineffability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fellow Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 "The apple will fall" or " The apple probably will fall" means the the same for practical purpose. (if the chance is more than 1 billion of billion to 1, for example ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 quote: Originally posted by: DSutton "I'm not sure what you're getting at there. Can you give me an example of pure reason?" It is reasonable to say the apple will probably fall, or that it is very likely to fall. It is not reasonable to say that it WILL fall. I am just pointing out what I believe to be the limitation of all human observation and deduction. It is not reasonable to say that an apple will fall [from a tree]? Have you been able to walk in the air even once in your life time without any external assisstance, say wires? quote: Originally posted by: Andreas Sender Miles--I'm afraid I'm not understanding your point. The last quote is mine, but I am not part of the anti-certainty crowd, and I would hardly imagine Heisenberg to be the antidote to Hume. What I was trying to say is that taking things out of context and asking to be examined is just a waste of time. By merely stating "Science cannot prove or disprove the Humian proposition that there is no such thing as certainty." doesn't support your point/argument. According to your quote, Hume and Heisenberg had at least one thing in common: They both concluded "uncertainty" in their own arguments. Even so, can anyone say that there was no certainty in the world? Of course, not as illustrated in my gas-car analogy. My point is that science is like solving jig puzzles. It requires a well-defined scope and proven methodology to draw a valid conclusion. When the scope is changed, the correct conclusion might no longer apply, just like a jig piece, which is put in a wrong slot on the puzzle board. But it does not mean the piece is a wrong piece in the entirety. In order to find the right pieces to portray a big picture, it requires good designs and appropriate material to carry out the experiments, which is costly. Does science have its limitations? Oh yeah. Any methodology is only as good as the person, who designs the work. Even if the designer has the perfect everything, without adequate funding, it is unlikely that a significant work can be carried out by an individual investigator/investigators in our time these days. Anyone, who commits fallacies even in a passive-aggressive fashion, cannot win the argument regardless what he/she wants to believe. Admittedly, everyone is entitled to free speech in the US, and I respect that. Happy Holidays, everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronos Posted December 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 I promised myself I wouldn't post to this thread after seeing the direction it's taken, but all this talk about science and the nature of knowledge leads me to recommend Isaac Asimov's essay, The Relativity of Wrong. I think miles, especially, will agree with it and enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Thank you, chronos. Sold immediately on the author of the essay. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lundberg Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 In response to the following from Miles: "Geez, we women believe in everything when asked (according to the survey), don't we?" I think Michael Darnton answered that already: "http://www.heartmath.org/research/research-intuition/Intuition_Part1.pdf"> http://www.heartmath.org/resea...on/Intuition_Part1.pdf Just because something is currently unexplainable, it does not automatically follow that it is bogus. One of the criticisms of Randi is that he passes judgement on things about which he has absolutly no knowledge or understanding, simply on a basis of his personal gut feelings. P.S. Mike Darnton, I think there is a correlation between your enthusiasm for violin making as an art and your interest in depths of knowledge that eludes mainstream thinkers. That's a formal way of saying I dig the way you think. Liz Lundberg Ohio River Life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Liz, The post was my response after reading the survey, which was not related to Michael's posts at all. I did not intend for an answer, but did enjoy upnorth's reply. Since you contined, I assumed that your comments were for me as well. So there you go. In regard to your comments: quote: Just because something is currently unexplainable, it does not automatically follow that it is bogus. I totally agree that "just because something is currently unexplainable, it does not automatically follow that it is bogus." But, on the other hand, does it automatically follow that it is not bogus? I think not. [edit] After a good night sleep and re-read your post, I still don't believe someone would say "just because something is currently unexplainable, it does not automatically follow that it is bogus" as a response to my post. My original post was a statement with displeasure (please see the disgusted icon I put), which has nothing with logic at all. Apparently, I was either under-understood or misunderstood. However, upnorth and chronos got my thinking right. quote: One of the criticisms of Randi is that he passes judgement on things about which he has absolutly no knowledge or understanding, simply on a basis of his personal gut feelings. I would tend to agree with the critism if the claim "...he has absolutely no knowledge or understanding, simply on a basis of his personal gut feelings" is true. However, on the other hand, if Randi knows his stuff, I would not dismiss his gut feelings with ease. In reality, I think it is probably true that I am more ignorant than he is. So I read the posts and made no comments on/about Randi. That said, I would certainly give the benefit of doubt to Michael for his expertise. So if you think I disagree with Michael or critics of similar thoughts in their criticism about Randi, you were certainly mistaken. I know my limitations especially in world of music. If your remarks were not intended for me, I apologize for the misunderstanding. In any event, thank you for digging out the article I missed from Michael's post. That's an interesting paper. I got the part II as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Darnton Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Liz, thanks. One of the nicest things anyone's ever said about me, he was trying to gently insult me and said that I was "a cesspool of useless information." You have to troll deeply to find the really useless stuff. :-) ..................... Oh, I see you're a Neil Gaiman fan, too (or is that a friend?) Should have known. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 quote: Originally posted by: Michael Darnton he was trying to gently insult me and said that I was "a cesspool of useless information." You have to troll deeply to find the really useless stuff. :-) One man's useless information is another's treasure? I have always been wondering where/how you found all that "useless information", including your internet dog cartoon. Really cool stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvin Goldsmith Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Paul Feyeraband...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Darnton Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Cool. Thanks. "There is no idea, however ancient and absurd, that is not capable of improving our knowledge." Exactly! let's try this..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 quote: "There is no idea, however ancient and absurd, that is not capable of improving our knowledge." Great spirit, especially, for the holiday season. If the statement is necessarily true, then I don't understand how "troll" came about, and how we concluded "don't feed troll". And how Randi and Dr. N would be the target of negative criticism (seems negative to me)? Apparently, I am missing something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSutton Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Hate to beat the point to death, but I think it is important to recognize what science is capable of and what it is not. Mankind has invented science to model reality. Science makes no claim to truth, only that reality is 'like' such and such.....and that is all it can do. How am I wrong in this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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