----- Original Message -----
From: "John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: *DO* we share a civilization?
> The Law of Comparative Advantage has as much truth as the Law of Gravity
> (which I udnerstand it is now fashionable to not refer to scientific laws
> as "truths" - but I hate such existentialisms.)
>
John, that came from me and it has nothing to do with existentialism. It
has to do with scientists understanding of their craft and the limitations
therein. It also has to do with the paradigm shift that occurred when
science replaced natural philosophy as the means of investigating the world.
(I think paradigm shift is way over used but 2 shifts in over 2000 years
isn't overdone in my book). Natural philosophy is an investigation who's
goal is to find truth. Science tries to model and predict phenomenon.
In doing so, long standing philosophical arguments were cleverly tabled.
Instead of having to disprove the idealism of Plato, scientists could just
shrug and say "all we are trying to do is model the shadows on the wall of
the cave."
The law you are talking about is very different from universal gravitation.
That is a model that has been verified hundreds of thousands of times. I
would like to see the same sort of verification of your "law" to, say 4
significant figures.
Indeed, compare your arguments with those of Aristotle in "Physica" and the
applications of the "laws" of electromagnetism in, say, Jackson's
Electromagnetism. You will find a closer parallel in Aristotle than in
Jackson.
Dan M.
