On Sep 25, 2011, at 4:10 PM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote:
On 9/25/2011 12:35 AM, Jason Resch wrote:
On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 12:09 AM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net>
wrote:
"A theory that can explain anything, fails to explain at all."
A few people on this list have repeated this sentiment, but I
wonder if it is really so. If there were an oracle that could
provide an explanation for any question asked of it, should we
conclude this oracle fails to explain anything at all? If not,
then what is the difference between a theory that could explain
anything and an oracle that could explain anything?
Of course that's not what the aphorism means. It means if you have
a theory that can explain why wicked people get sick and pious ones
don't and the same theory can explain why pious people get sick and
wicked ones don't, then that's a theory that fails to explain at all.
For a theory to explain something I thought it implied that the
"something" was actually observed (or at least not directly
contradicted by observation).
You have used this aphorism when arguing against theories that propose
everything/infinite/large number of possibility type theories. That
is what I was questioning.
Since these theories don't purport to explain contradictions such as
who both does and does not get sick, I wonder if the aphorism is a
legitimate protest against such theories.
Jason
Brent
Physicists spend their lives searching for a physical TOE that
could in principal explain anything that happens in this universe.
Is their search in vain because this TOE would explain nothing at
all?
A final thought, are theories that propose the existence of
everything, really theories that can explain anything?
Jason
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