Hi John
>>There is not a scientist alive that learned to do science by reading Karl
>>Popper. Popper was just a reporter, he observed how scientists work and
>>described what he saw. And I don't think Popper was exactly a fount of wisdom.
In chapter 37 of his 1976 (1976!!) book "Unended Quest: An Intellectual
Autobiography" Popper says:
"Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research
program".
Those are Popper's own words not mine, and this is not something to make Popper
fans or fans of philosophers of science in general proud.
I don't have any problem with Popper's comments here. I see no reason
whatsoever for 'Popper fans or fans of philosophers of science' to be concerned
in the slightest.
First of all, be clear about what Popper said. After describing Darwinism as a
metaphysical research program he continues:
And yet, the theory is invaluable. I do not see how, without it, our knowledge
could have grown as it has done since Darwin. In trying to explain experiments
with bacteria which become adapted to, say, penicillin, it is quite clear that
we are greatly helped by the theory of natural selection. Although it is
metaphysical, it sheds much light upon very concrete and very practical
researches. It allows us to study adaptation to a new environment (such as a
penicillin-infested environment) in a rational way: it suggests the existence
of a mechanism of adaptation, and it allows us even to study in detail the
mechanism at work. And it is the only theory so far which does all that.
Clearly Popper had huge respect for Darwinism. People misunderstand Popper
here. For him 'metaphysical research programmes' were an essential part of
science. It isn't a derogative term you know?
Furthermore, in regarding natural selection as untestable he followed in the
footsteps of many Darwinists. It was quite common to think that the concept of
'survival of the fittest' involved circular reasoning and was therefore
tautological. ie. 'fittest' is defined as 'those that survive' and so
'survival of the fittest' amounts to saying 'the survivors survive'. Can't see
that ever being falsified. Of course, the gaff is that Darwin never used the
term survival of the fittest. It is a gaff, but it isn't a big one.
Secondly, I admire Popper for not just accepting Darwinism by rote. For calling
things as he saw them, even if he called it wrong. Good for him. The fact he
later acknowledged his mistake shows him to be honest. I like people who can
admit they were wrong. No. Theres nothing here to embarrass anyone.
All the best.
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2013 18:51:40 -0700
From: meeke...@verizon.net
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: What gives philosophers a bad name?
Do they deny the existence of
electrons? quarks? as Mach denied atoms.
Brent
On 9/7/2013 3:52 PM, spudboy...@aol.com wrote:
Yet, there's lots of scientists in
public forums like this, who embrace logical positivism. I
am not saying this is a good thing, but something I have
experienced.
-----Original Message-----
From: meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net>
To: everything-list <everything-list@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sat, Sep 7, 2013 4:16 pm
Subject: Re: What gives philosophers a bad name?
On 9/7/2013 12:40 AM, Alberto
G. Corona wrote:
That's right. I´m not joking if i
say that the thing that discredited philosophers
definitively was relativity, quantum mechanics and their
realization: the atomic bomb. That is the event that
raised physicalism, a branch of logical positivism and
analytical philosophy, and discredited any other way of
thinking.
If by
"physicalism" you mean the meta- of physics, then it's
not positivism. Positivism hasn't been considered a
good meta-physics since Mach. Too many unobservable
things: atoms, photons, quarks, virtual particles,...
turned out to make good empirical models.
Brent
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