The most interesting and less known work of Popper is the foundation of evolutionary epistemology
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology-evolutionary/ which is much more ambitious that falsacionism and mere demarcation and is far far more interesting. 2013/9/20 Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> > Hi Chris, > > > On 20 Sep 2013, at 02:45, chris peck wrote: > > > > > Hi John > > *>>It doesn't take a genius to realize that if a idea isn't getting > anywhere, that is to say if it doesn't produce new interesting ideas, your > time would be better spent doing something else. * > > Whats with this idea that the only good ideas are ones it would take a > genius to realize? The best ideas are ones kids can understand. Your idol > Feynmann would have put you over his lap and spanked you for saying that. > Few people had greater contempt for 'ideas' only 'geniuses' could > understand. > > Anyway, its at the core of Popper's view that theories should aim to be > productive in making falsifiable predictions and you are only regurgitating > that view because rightly or wrongly, via Popper, it has seeped into our > culture's conception of what good science is. 150 years ago, you wouldn't > have really cared. You would have been happy had scientists worked purely > inductively. Most likely you'ld have swallowed psychoanalysis hook line and > sinker without even considering whether it could be falsified. > > > > OK. I think (like Clark) that all good scientists are Popperian (or > locally so) since Pythagorus and much before. > Then Popper made the discovery that this is the case, normally, in those > domain qualified as scientific. As such I think (unlike Clark) that Popper > put his finger on something important. > > Alas, "Popperianity" has not been allowed in the human science, in *some* > type of philosophy, and in theology, since some times. > > Neoplatonist theologians were more Popperian than most theologians' today, > with many exception of course like Trouillard, Valadier and Torrance, and > even Alan Watts, I think. > > Then, a friend just sent me a paper showing that machines just have > succeeded in verifying Gödel's proof of the existence of God. > > http://arxiv.org/abs/1308.4526 > > Too bad I don't believe in the S5 modal logic, nor do I think that > St-Anselm definition of God is the best one. But who knows? > > So you see Popperian theology is *more and more* coming back, after all. > > It is indisputably valid mathematical theology. This does not mean > interesting, of course. > > It is probably a difficult question to see if such a notion of God is > compatible or related with the "natural" platonic Gods of the universal > machine (Arithmetical Truth, Truth). > > Note also that Truth, by definition cannot be Popperian: it is not > falsifiable, of course. That's a common point with consciousness > "here-and-now", which is not falsifiable nor doubtable, yet true (except > for the zombies of course). OK? > > That's why a scientist will never assert that his statement are truthful, > he will always remind the assumptions used to link the measurement results. > > Note also that many scientists lose Popperianity at the pose café. > > I find Popperianity as a very important principle of science, yet I do > think it is false in many other important case. I can doubt all theories, > but not all experiences (or I lie to myself). > > Bruno > > > http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/ > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- Alberto. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
