[lbo-talk] Re: The Plutocrats Go Wild

ravi gadfly at exitleft.org
Mon Sep 13 09:35:18 PDT 2004


joanna bujes wrote:
> that one went right by me....what anecdote is your question based on?
>
> ravi wrote:
>
>>Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>>>Do you ever argue from evidence, or just from what pops up in your head?
>>
>>are you quoting bohr to einstein? ;-)
>

i would have a tough time finding references online, but there were multiple episodes of bohr and einstein's disagreements regarding the conflict between the theory of relativity and quantum physics; einstein being given to theory and elegant design and bohr being more experimental and willing to accept the strange universe(s) suggested by quantum physics.

einstein famously suggested that when you have strong theoretical reasons to believe in something, you should not be swayed by experimental data to the contrary. he is also famous (as you probably know) for inventing "though experiments" to buttress his theories. a particularly interesting episode, in this regard, is the story of the EPR thought experiment and its "resolution" in bell's theorem, and the real world experiments that followed.

apologies for the sketchy response and lack of references. oh well, that's my three for the day :-(.

--ravi

p.s: in case it wasn't clear, my original response to doug was intended in humour.



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