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To: Fester Chugabrew
Data and theories alone do not make science.

Piling up facts is not science--science is facts-and-theories. Facts alone have limited use and lack meaning: a valid theory organizes them into far greater usefulness.

A powerful theory not only embraces old facts and new but also discloses unsuspected facts [Heinlein 1980:480-481].


637 posted on 01/27/2006 11:11:21 AM PST by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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To: Coyoteman

Science is more than facts and theories. From specific to general it consists of data, theories, and shaping principles. Baconian inductivism, hypothetico-deductivism, and Popperian falsification each have their weaknesses. Furthermore there is no clear-cut method to determine the degree to which evidence may or may not confirm a scientific theory. Is it an empirical fact that the law of parsimony always applies? If not, then when do we know for certain we are choosing the correct theory?

The debate over evolutionism vs. creationism is the result of investing inferences on a non-empirical basis. Because science is, as far as we know, only undertaken by the human species, there is a subjective propensity to fill in the blanks when reasoning from the specific to the general when there may be little or no objective continuity.


638 posted on 01/27/2006 11:35:49 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew
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