On Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 4:49:36 PM UTC-7, Philip Thrift wrote: > > > > On Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 4:25:16 PM UTC-6, Alan Grayson wrote: >> >> The problem with physics is physicists ! Yeah, that's my conclusion after >> many years of studying, arguing and reading. Many, perhaps most, attribute >> ontological character to what is epistemological; namely the wf. This leads >> to all kinds of conceptual errors, and ridiculous models and conjectures -- >> such as MW, particles being in two positions at the same time, radiioactive >> sources that are simultanously decayed and undecayed, and so forth. The wf >> gives us information about the state of a system and nothing more. Sorry to >> disappoint. AG >> > > > > > Physics is only models that come and go. One model (an expression in a > language) can be replaced by another if it's useful. Physicists who jump > from a model to an absolute statement about reality are out over their skis. > > *How Models Are Used to Represent Reality* > Ronald N. Giere > > https://www.researchgate.net/publication/216300663_How_Models_Are_Used_to_Represent_Reality > > Most recent philosophical thought about the scientific representation of > the world has focused on dyadic relationships between language-like > entities and the world, particularly the semantic relationships of > reference and truth. Drawing inspiration from diverse sources, I argue that > we should focus on the pragmatic activity of representing, so that the > basic representational relationship has the form: Scientists use models to > represent aspects of the world for specific purposes. Leaving aside the > terms "law" and "theory," I distinguish principles, specific conditions, > models, hypotheses, and generalizations. I argue that scientists use > designated similarities between models and aspects of the world to form > both hypotheses and generalizations. > > @philipthrift. >
I fundamentally disagree. The premise underlying models is that they progressively approach a "true" discription of the external world. Do you really think the Earth-centered model of the solar system is equally true as our present understanding? AG -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/f5303132-7830-46c9-8ccf-eef08bf3d45d%40googlegroups.com.
