Deutch and Popper

Gordon Fitch gcf at panix.com
Wed Jan 2 10:01:32 PST 2002


Daniel Davies wrote:
> > It absolutely amazes me that Popperians like Deutch have no problems at all
> > talking about the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and other
> > things which appear on the face of them to be utterly unfalsifiable, but
> > have a scunner against astrology, which provides me with twelve falsifiable
> > predictions free every day with my newspaper.

Miles Jackson:
> Yep. But just like any practical scientist, Popperians ignore or
> explain away examples that contradict their favorite theory. And this
> is not meant to diss scientists: holding onto a theory in the face
> of "unruly" data is in fact a crucial characteristic of science
> (PKF's stuff on Galileo is great on this). Anybody who thinks that
> scientists digilently throw out an elegant theory just because some
> data contradicts it needs to put down the Popper and actually talk to
> some practicing scientists.

Yeah, but fudging doesn't really contradict Popper.

I see the problem with Popper's formulation as a lack of interest or maybe relevance. I think of science as the concoction and collection of _interesting_ statements which correspond (accurately, one hopes) to sets of phenomena. Because a statement or statement set is falsifiable yet isn't falsified doesn't necessarily make it interesting -- interest comes from the power, beauty or entertainment which we get from the statements. And those in turn depend on our desires, which guide us in the first place -- for instance, Copernicus reworking the model of the solar system not because the Ptolmaic system was inaccurate -- his was no better on that score -- but because it was _inelegant_.

-- Gordon



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