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}John, list
But how do we get around the fact that most of our beliefs are
'firmly held opinions' without any ability to be factually verified.
That is - we live in, not merely a cultural and historical 'fog'
where our facts about the past and the present are instead opinions
detached from existential reality, but our metaphysical beliefs are
purely intellectual constructs and equally outside of verification.
That is - as a species - are we doomed to live primarily within a
fictional realm - with only the briefest diversions into the factual
and truthful?
Edwina
On Sun 23/06/19 11:18 PM , John F Sowa [email protected] sent:
Jerry and Joe,
Jerry
> What... makes a phenomenon valuable for science if there are
> numerous unexplained facts that can be subject to exact analysis
> but not enough time to examine them all?
Peirce's definition of truth depends on what would be discovered
if inquiry is pursued indefinitely. He even said that the time
to complete all the analysis might take longer than the survival
of the human race. Then perhaps some future beings or even
some aliens in a distant galaxy might be able to continue
the inquiry.
JR
> That is, how do you go from a strange, isolated and unexplained
> fact useful to science to “a very serious problem requiring
> respectful treatment”, which renders it useful?
Peirce's criterion for evaluating the truth of any assumption
is its ability to make testable predictions. A single observation,
such as some message obtained through telepathy, doesn't provide
sufficient information for predicting how and when other messages
might come through telepathy.
For the word 'telepathy', I found 42 examples by searching CP.
In some examples, he talks about cases where somebody dies, and
a close friend or relative instantly get a feeling that the
person had died.
That is very hard to test. Even if someone gets a strong feeling
that seems to be telepathic, it's quite possible that the
information
was an "educated guess" based on knowledge about somebody's health.
Joe
> Interesting case, however it is not clear what motion detection
> technology was deployed... Depending on type, infrared motion
> detectors can be triggered by temperature change, and/or light
> wave pattern disturbance.
I agree that there may be some physical explanation for the
phenomena. The people from the Percy Grainger Society asked the
experts at the company that made the camera and motion detector
about possible causes. But no one could suggest any likely cause.
But given that we are now reaching the end of June, I started to
think about the Fourth of July. And I noticed that the date might
be significant: Saturday, 2 July 2016 at 8:32 pm and 9:23 pm.
Kids often get fireworks for the Fourth, and I have sometimes
seen and heard some them practicing on the weekend before. The
time of 8:32 pm EDT is just after sunset, and 9:23 pm is long
enough after twilight for more complete darkness. Just behind the
Grainger house is a parking lot for a business on the next street,
and the Grainger property includes a side lot next to the house.
Either one might be a place sufficiently removed from watchful
parents.
It's possible that a loud noise might have set off the motion
detector, and it's possible that the light might have affected
the camera.
Now that would be a testable hypothesis. In New York, fireworks
are illegal without a permit. But some scientists (or kids) who
have the time, funding, and inclination to perform repeated
experiments might be able to determine what kind of fireworks
from what positions could trigger the motion detector and be
recorded by the camera.
On the other hand, the fireworks might have awakened Percy's ghost.
John
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