Two Statues: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (Part 1-1)

In the interests of helping people gain a better grasp on the philosophical foundations of science, I'm starting a series that will cover the major developments in the philosophy of science in the 20th century. If well received, I will expand on the basic outline I have thus far imagined.

Eddington's essay: www.abstractobjects.net/ip/TwoTables.pdf

Category:

Education

Tags:

• philosophy of science
• Einstein
• Eddington
• two tables
• Popper
• Kuhn
• Lakatos
• Hume
• Feyerabend

[jffryh]

I kind of thought a "bust" was suposed to include shoulders

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@jffryh I hadn't heard that, so I looked it up and it seems you are right. Which brings up the question 'if that's not properly called a bust, is there a proper name for a statue of just someone's head?'

[Nervousification]

What do you mean by "real"?

Are you asking "Does the statue exist, or do the particles making it up exist?"?

Well that's a pretty retarded question, even my dick know that both are real.

Ironic how you distinguish between "good" and "bad" philosophy;

Yet don't bother to go with the "good" kind.

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@Nervousification "Yet don't bother to go with the "good" kind."

Tell it to Eddington.

[ThePeaceableKingdom]

"Space seems especially curved in this location" - Eddington after executing a wicked slice on the links...

.

In the spirit of Rutherford's "stamp collectiong" - a knock specifically on biology - I've always enjoyed Philip Anderson's "Particle physicists still think they are doing science when they're really only cleaning up after the party."

[DarkwingScooter]

Most people who think of themselves as scientific on YouTube and the internet in general have no idea that they have no idea what they believe about science.

Almost invariably they turn out to be logical positivists on investigation.

[dramlee01]

You quoted the Rutherford maxim, "All science is either physics or stamp collecting". I have always found it amusing that he won his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. I am also aware that he was not amused.

[jffryh]

maybe you could put links to each of other videos in series in the descriptions?

[jffryh]

@SisyphusRedeemed Wikipedia says "A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders."

Maybe "variable portion" could mean anywhere from 0% to 100%?

[Keeban3]

I prefer "my two tables".

[Nervousification]

@SisyphusRedeemed That not what I said, I don't care how "close" you think it was. I said "your wrong, ergo, your an idiot" not "your and idiot, ergo, your wrong." The later being a fallacy.

As for Eddington, I'm not disagreeing with his physics, so your appeal to authority doesn't even apply here. If anything, I'm disagreeing with his philosophy. The statue is a statue. A statue is made up of electrongs, yes, but that doesn't mean the statue isn't a statue.

(Fucking Moron)

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@Nervousification "If I had said "Your argument is illogical because your a fucking moron", that would be a fallacy."

That's actually very close to what you said. You said that if I can't define reality, then I'm a moron. The implication being that I am wrong, or at least that you can disregard Eddington's argument. Which, by the way, you seem to have neglected: This is NOT my argument; it belongs to one of the most brilliant physicists in the 20th century. So really, take it up with him.

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@Nervousification "defining reality as "All that is the case", then your whole idea of "Which statue is real" is a false dilemma."

A false dilemma requires there to be at least a one more option. Since you didn't state what that option is, I'll assume you simply don't understand how the false dilemma fallacy works, and meant to say that the dilemma is resolved, since both statues are real under this definition. And yeah, that's a great way to resolve the problem.