On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 lweiger at umich.edu wrote:
> Quoting Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu>:
>
>
>> --A scientific law is a contingent understanding of the world that
>> is almost certain to be replaced in the future; it is not an
>> immutable, unchanging characteristic of the universe that existed
>> before humans.
>
> But there may be (probably are) immutable, unchanging characteristics of the
> universe, and the fact that some of our prior descriptions turned out to be
> "mere" approximations isn't cause for skepticism of any sort.
>
> -- Luke
You're missing my point. I am not skepticism about the existence of real patterns; I'm skeptical about the claim that science at one particular point in time accurately represents those patterns with its models. (In other words, I have faith in scientific progress!)
Miles