From: Dave Zachariah (davez@kth.se)
Date: Sat Apr 05 2008 - 05:10:40 EDT
on 2008-04-05 10:35 GERALD LEVY wrote: > > Paul, I think you need to be careful with the word 'demonstrated' here. > > You can demonstrate logically, i.e. deduce certain consequences, and > you > > can demonstrate things empirically. They are not the same thing. It > does > > not matter if the logical demonstration was consistent and elegant, if > > it is contradicted by empirical evidence one discards the theory in the > > search for a better one. > > > Dave Z: > > I think you need to be careful with the word "discards" here. > If empirical evidence contradicts a theory, then you have to explain > _why_ that is the case before you draw any conclusions about whether > the theory needs to be discarded _or_ modified, and/or expanded/ > enriched, and/or contextualized. > When I wrote "empirical evidence contradicts a theory" I was implicitly including the real process by which evidence is gathered, analyzed and conclusions are drawn. True, "discard" may be too strong word here. Typically one modifies or *abandons* weak theories for stronger ones, rather than simply "discarding them". //Dave Z _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
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