On 1/2/2013 10:34 AM, Evgenii Rudnyi wrote:
A nice quote from Galileo by John L. Heilbron that shows:
1) One could trace the falsifiability to Jesuits of Galileo's time.
2) It could be a link between falsifiability and theology.
p. 318 ‘However, false is not useless. The motion supposed by Copernicus can be employed
in calculations,
The Copernican model was less accurate than the Ptolemaic one. It wasn't until Kepler and
elliptical orbits that the heliocentric model became superior for celestial predictions.
and might even be useful to the faith if mathematicians emphasized their falsity along
with their utility. Here Inchofer had in mind the minor truth later rediscovered by
Karl Popper: “mathematicians [should] … work more and more toward trying to falsify
theories rather than to defend them“.
This seems confused. Mathematicians prove theorems from axioms - they don't have theories
that can be falsified. At worst they may think a proof is valid when it's not. He must
have been using "mathematician" carelessly to mean scientist.
Brent
I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He did
not.
--- Jules Renard
To this anticipation of modern epistemology Inchofer added a pinch of ancient wisdom,
Urban’s Simple in the words of the Preacher: “no man can find out the work that
God maketh from beginning to end.”‘
Evgenii
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