slevesque writes:
Einstein once said in a conversation with Schrodinger that ''it is the theory which determines what one can observe''.
Appeal to atuthority much?
Meaning that, in theory, it is the facts who determine the theory. But in fact, it is the theory which determines the facts.
Wrong. In science, facts dtermine the theory. If a fact is found that doesn't fit the theory, the theory is changed. See, gravity, that got changed because of Einstein.
This may sound like blasphemy, but think about it and I hope you will see that it is in fact the reality of things.
I see a very different reality.
If I'm a scientist, I don't just collect data and theorize on it afterwards. No, I start with a theory that I want to prove, and then set out to experiment to prove it.
Actually, you make predictions with your hypothesis, then do an experiment to see if your prediction comes true. If it doesn't you either discard or change the hypothesis.
Why does a scientist do 'this' experiment instead of 'that' one ?
Because the one he does is relevant to the prediction he made.
Because he thinks that 'this' one is the one that will confirm his theory.
No, because that is the way to test if the prediction was correct.
Of course, sometimes, the experiment shows a contradictory result and you are forced to change your theory.
Well then, what are you complaining about?
But most of the time, you are only going to adapt your theory as to incorporate the new data.
Well of course, a theory is, after all, a very good explanation for the world around us already, no need to discard an entire theory, when modifying it will do just fine.
Only when the new data is imposible to fit with your theory do you abandon the idea completely.
Yes. Why use the word "only" here by the way? Are there other reasons to change a theory other then the data not fitting?
this is, in essence, what Einstein was talking about. 'The theory determines what one can observe'
Then you have a weird way of explaining it, since you just admitted that we do in fact change, or even discard our theories to fit the facts.
Is this not what the early paleontologists did when evolutionnary theory came out ?
Make predictions and see if they held water? Yes.
Even when it was far from an established theory, paleontologist reinterpreted the fossils they had in terms of evolution, and every fossil discovery afterwards was fit in the evolutionnary framework.
No they didn't. They made predictions witht he theory, looked at the fossil record, and found the predictions to be accurate.
Heck, some of them even traveled solely to find the 'missing link'.
Yes, a prediction made by the theory.
The fact of evolution was not discerned from the fossils, it is rather the fossils who were fitted in the grand idea of evolution.
Wrong. The fossil record is partly why the theory became accepted. It fit the predictions made by the theory.
And I find absolutely no problem with that, because this is how science works in reality.
No it doesn't, as I have shown.
There is always a bias, what you think is true will always bias the experiments you make and how your interpret the results.
Not when using the scientific method.
Philosophers of science explained this very well, and scientists up to Einstein's days had a great understanding of the philosophy behind science, and how it works.
Which is not the way you seem to think it works.
Unfortunately, this 'culture of science/philosophy' has been somewhat lost currently, probably because of how the education sytem is built.
The scientific method remains unchanged to this day. That some people can't follow it doesn't mean the method is wrong.
By the way, this is all kinda off-topic here, this will be my last reply here on this matter. I will propose a new topic on it this evening (my time), or you can choose to propose one yourself before then if you wish.
I hunt for the truth
I am the one Orgasmatron, the outstretched grasping hand
My image is of agony, my servants rape the land
Obsequious and arrogant, clandestine and vain
Two thousand years of misery, of torture in my name
Hypocrisy made paramount, paranoia the law
My name is called religion, sadistic, sacred whore.
-Lyrics by Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead
™ Version 4.2
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