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Author Topic:   Consilience - the Unity of Knowledge
Theodoric
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Posts: 9076
From: Northwest, WI, USA
Joined: 08-15-2005
Member Rating: 3.7


Message 25 of 27 (519960)
08-18-2009 6:04 PM
Reply to: Message 24 by Stile
08-18-2009 12:55 PM


Re: The ability to observe is the key
Again, this isn't to say that the humanities are useless for everything, it's just that they're not very useful for obtaining known-to-be-accurate knowledge about the world. The best they can provide are best-guesses about ideals. Which is it's own useful tool for studies involving more thought-based exercises.
Very good summation. This explains exactly the study of history, which was my field of study. It is very hard to know exactly what happened in the past. At best we have a very good interpretation of the facts.
For example one just has to look at the recent scholarship about Lewis and Clarke and the Battle of Little Bighorn to see that history is a "best guess" field. This is not to say it has no value, it has extreme value, it is just that there are not absolutes.

Facts don't lie or have an agenda. Facts are just facts

This message is a reply to:
 Message 24 by Stile, posted 08-18-2009 12:55 PM Stile has seen this message but not replied

  
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