[lbo-talk] Fw: Concerning your submission to *Science & Society*

Jim Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Fri Dec 18 17:28:13 PST 2009


On Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:18:35 -0800 (PST) Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> writes:
>
> Christopher E. Doss
> Moscow, Russian Federation
> I think one of these examples would be the bulk of modern physics,
> since quantum theory and relatively theory contradict each other.

That would be one notable example. Thomas Kuhn gave a number of different examples in his writings.

Miles tells us:

". . . If a theory is refuted time and again by evidence, it should be discarded. It doesn't matter how many theories there are to replace it. A good scientific theory is consistent with the available evidence. If there is no well-supported theory in a particular field of study at a particular time, that's not the end of the world; it just means we have some creative theorizing to do."

Well that the ideal certainly but the actual practices of scientists are a good deal less tidy.

It is interesting to note that when Einstein developed his theory of special relativity, he did so in contradiction to a lot of empirical data. His theory's prediction of the mass of an electron when accelerated close to the speed of light was contradicted by the available experimental evidence, which Einstein readily dismissed. Later experiments would vindicate Einstein on that point.

Jim F.


>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com>
>
>
> A statement, which as far as these things go,
> is pretty much a common place in the philosophy
> of science. There are certainly plenty of
> examples in the history of science of
> theories continuing to be widely accepted
> by scientists despite their inconsistencies
> with empirical data because at the time
> there were no good alternative theories
> to replace them. So I think Laibman
> does have a point here,
>
> Jim F.
>
>
>
>
>
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