--- Platt Holden <pholden@sc.rr.com> wrote: > Andrea:
>
> > experiments are reproducible, not theories.
> Scientific theories are never
> > considered "true" or "objective", either. Theories
> are just provisionally
> > *confirmed* (until they are eventually confuted)
> by the fact that they are
> > *in accordance* with the (objective, reproducible)
> results of experiments.
> > (And of course, experiments include such things
> like finding fossil bones,
> > which too are objective - any observer can see
> them).
>
> Thanks for clarifying the concept of "theory."
> However, shouldn't a
> theory to be called scientific be, in principle,
> susceptible to confirmation
> by experiment? Popper, who is often cited here as
> the last word in the
> philosophy of science (and who I often disagree
> with) has openly
> questioned whether evolution is a science at all
> because its assertions
> are not potentially falsifiable. (The same charge
> can be made against
> the MOQ, but the MOQ makes no claim to being
> scientific). In this
> case, I think Popper has a point. The data used to
> support evolution are
> neither experiments nor repeatable, nor can they be,
> since the origin of
> species was a unique event. As for the bones you
> speak of, one of the
> doubts cast upon the Darwinian version which posits
> long-tern gradual
> changes is that there are few if any bones in the
> fossil record that can
> be identified as intermediate between the older and
> the newer, otherwise
> known as the "missing link" problem. Worse, as more
> bones are being
> discovered, the gaps in the record are being
> confirmed. But I digress.
> The point is that the Darwin Theory of Evolution is
> not a bona fide
> scientific theory since it can't be experimentally
> proven one way or the
> other.
>
> Platt
>
Threads often turn into discussions about meaning of
words. A quality idea is to have dedicated threads of
the form DEF: <word>
Hope this helps.
André
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