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To: Strategerist
What the average Creationist thinks the definition of "theory" is, a scientist would call a "hypothesis" not a theory.

I couldn't help but notice from the article that "the great philosopher of science Karl Popper suggested that the standard version of evolution even falls short of being a scientific theory, being instead an untestable tautology". Untestable tautology. He also called it a "metaphysical research programme" (Karl Popper, Unended Quest (Glasgow: Fontana, Collins. 1976), p.151).

44 posted on 08/02/2004 6:09:14 PM PDT by nonsporting
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To: nonsporting
I couldn't help but notice from the article that "the great philosopher of science Karl Popper suggested that the standard version of evolution even falls short of being a scientific theory, being instead an untestable tautology". Untestable tautology. He also called it a "metaphysical research programme" (Karl Popper, Unended Quest (Glasgow: Fontana, Collins. 1976), p.151).

Popper recanted two years later:

"I mention this problem because I too belong among the culprits. Influenced by what these authorities say, I have in the past described the theory as "almost tautological", and I have tried to explain how the theory of natural selection could be untestable (as is a tautology) and yet of great scientific interest. My solution was that the doctrine of natural selection is a most successful metaphysical research programme. It raises detailed problems in many fields, and it tells us what we would expect of an acceptable solution of these problems."

I still believe that natural selection works this way as a research programme. Nevertheless, I have changed my mind about the testability and logical status of the theory of natural selection; and I am glad to have an opportunity to make a recantation. My recantation may, I hope, contribute a little to the understanding of the status of natural selection.

[emphasis added]

From "Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind", Dialectica, vol. 32, no. 3-4, 1978, pp. 339-355

51 posted on 08/02/2004 6:48:29 PM PDT by longshadow
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To: nonsporting
I couldn't help but notice from the article that "the great philosopher of science Karl Popper suggested that the standard version of evolution even falls short of being a scientific theory, being instead an untestable tautology". Untestable tautology. He also called it a "metaphysical research programme" (Karl Popper, Unended Quest (Glasgow: Fontana, Collins. 1976), p.151).

Popper recanted this stance after becoming more intimately acquainted with the evidence.

529 posted on 08/05/2004 5:42:01 AM PDT by donh
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