FBI on Einstein

[James Farmelant]

This is of course assuming that Quine was all wet with
his "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" in which he sought to
undermine the whole analytic/synthetic distinction
as well as presumably such distinctions as the
one between theoretical and empirical facts.

Jim

------Original Message------
From: JKSCHW at aol.com
To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
Sent: September 6, 2000 6:43:30 PM GMT
Subject: Re: FBI on Einstein

Empirical facts are those known through experience, as opposed to a priori
facts like 2+2=4, known in some other way. There may also be a contrast with
a theoretical fact, a fact derived from the structure of a theory. If that
is a valid contrast, the constant velocity of c is a theoretical rather than
a merely empirical fact. --jks

In a message dated Wed, 6 Sep 2000 11:20:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Daniel
Davies <d_squared_2002 at yahoo.co.uk> writes:

<<
>
> That the speed of light is the same in all
> directions and
> does not change over time is an empirical fact.

hrrrrmmmmmm ... not wonderfully happy with an ontology
that contains "empirical facts".  I'll happily grant
you it's a *physical fact*, but there are some pedants
out there for whom the distinction means something.

dd

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