Stephen Black wrote: > Nevertheless, a handy web search suggests that deep space astronomers do > call what they do experiments, even if they don't randomly assign planets to > conditions. For example, NASA has something called "Clementine Deep Space > Probe Science Experiment", and I think their feelings are going to be hurt > by Chris's dissing it.
No diss intended. My point was *not* that astronomy isn't science, but rather one can do perfectly acceptable science (such as astronomy) without doing experiments (exclusively). As for astronomers calling (some of) their work "experimental," I was using the term "experiment" in the (admittedly rather idiosyncratic) way that psychologists do. Not all other disciplines use it in the same way. See, e.g., Winston, A.S. & Blais, D.J. (1996). What counts as an experiment?: A transdisciplinary analysis of textbooks, 1930-1970. _American Journal of Psychology 109_, 599-616, which can also be found on-line at my HTP Prints -- http://htpprints.yorku.ca/documents/docs/00/00/00/34/index.html Regards, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
