Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
6 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,815 Year: 3,072/9,624 Month: 917/1,588 Week: 100/223 Day: 11/17 Hour: 0/7


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Is there anything up with the "Altenberg 16"?
Percy
Member
Posts: 22391
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.2


Message 14 of 47 (469000)
06-02-2008 7:47 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by randman
06-02-2008 1:05 PM


Re: so what is taught is wrong?
randman writes:
Science may not suppossed to work by cabals or group-think, but I would argue it largely does.
In whatever way science does actually operate, like all else that people do it is a human activity. This is true whether the science is carried out by creationists or scientists. The people involved are subject to all the weaknesses and foibles to which the human flesh is heir.
At heart what gives science an advantage over any other approach to knowledge is that it is based upon evidence from the real world. Any chicanery committed in the study of a real world phenomenon will eventually come to light, because other scientists can study the same phenomena and find out what is really so. It is only study not based upon the real world that has no means of detection and correction.
Even science misdirected by government can not permanently stop scientific progress, as your mention of the carbohydrate thread makes clear. Lysenkoism in the USSR is another example of government-driven scientific consensus eventually being discarded.
The goal of any scientist is to bring theory into as close agreement with the real world as possible. I'm sure we can assume that the scientists meeting in Altenberg will keep this goal firmly in mind.
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 4 by randman, posted 06-02-2008 1:05 PM randman has not replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22391
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.2


Message 20 of 47 (469040)
06-03-2008 7:50 AM
Reply to: Message 18 by bluegenes
06-03-2008 5:50 AM


Re: Understanding Journalism
bluegenes writes:
The research related to evolutionary biology done and published this year will have far more influence on its future than all the conferences held this year, including this one, and I think that the sixteen "biologists and philosophers of rock star stature" would agree with me on that.
While I don't exactly disagree, I prefer a slightly different take on this. We probably all agree that in keeping with the scientific goal of making theory coincide as closely to reality as possible, science should always be prepared to modify or even discard theory in light of new evidence or improved insight. Should new evidence or improved insight emerge from this meeting, I assume that scientists will adjust theory in whatever ways necessary to keep it congruent with our new understanding of reality.
--Percy
Edited by Percy, : Grammar.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 18 by bluegenes, posted 06-03-2008 5:50 AM bluegenes has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 21 by bluegenes, posted 06-03-2008 1:42 PM Percy has replied
 Message 26 by Copasetic, posted 06-09-2008 11:14 AM Percy has not replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22391
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.2


Message 24 of 47 (469100)
06-03-2008 8:13 PM
Reply to: Message 21 by bluegenes
06-03-2008 1:42 PM


I maybe didn't focus my comment well enough, because I agree with everything else that's been said. The cited article was way overblown about the potential for new science, and I agree that new science doesn't usually emerge from these types of meetings. It isn't like (for example) international monetary systems where there can be a Bretton Woods agreement that establishes an international gold standard, or international politics where there can be a Potsdam Conference that redraws the map of Europe.
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 21 by bluegenes, posted 06-03-2008 1:42 PM bluegenes has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024