tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post720669208867358972..comments2023-04-21T20:55:22.881-04:00Comments on It's Only A Theory: Tales in a subdued palette of chestnut and whiteGabriele Contessahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13607158011908969169noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-53509556921830209572010-02-12T09:05:02.725-05:002010-02-12T09:05:02.725-05:00That example sounds much like a faithfull claim ab...That example sounds much like a faithfull claim about science. It's almost as if science received the prophetic task to discover the truth about nature, which, by the way, ignores our tiny atempts to understand it at all.Lucashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06562141702405700975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-40493084794193679682010-02-02T17:59:25.500-05:002010-02-02T17:59:25.500-05:00Why look to the past for under-determined scientif...Why look to the past for under-determined scientific questions when the future is so much more under-determined by present evidence than the past is?<br /><br />For example: what color will the largest land animal be (if there is one) 70 million years from now?Eric Winsberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18236793679955972165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-42896800713258438722010-01-31T16:27:25.767-05:002010-01-31T16:27:25.767-05:00Eric: It's not clear, given the structure of s...Eric: It's not clear, given the structure of spacetime, whether it makes sense to ask for a cause of the big bang. The colour of dinosaurs and Socrates' blood type are different, because the questions are clearly meaningful and the past was one determinate way or another. Underdetermination, if it arises, only arises with respect to such questions because of the contingent limitations of what has been preserved in the historical record.P.D. Magnushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07799239684943144310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-34186803573203149962010-01-31T08:52:44.107-05:002010-01-31T08:52:44.107-05:00What about: 'what caused the big bang?' Th...What about: 'what caused the big bang?' This is an important question for cosmology and there are certainly scientifically informed speculations on the matter, but I don't think anybody believes that fact can be settled.Eric Schliesserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13840436384353801701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-10042860945560593622010-01-29T15:00:22.418-05:002010-01-29T15:00:22.418-05:00Robert: I am just looking for scientific questions...Robert: I am just looking for scientific questions, so philosophical chestnuts are off the table. But anyway, mind/body stuff is not underdetermined because there are some kinds of evidence that just won't have survived in the historical record; if it's underdetermined, it is so for different reasons.<br /><br />Socrates' blood type is underdetermined because the relevant evidence is lost to the past. But it arguably is just a point of trivia and not one of scientific interest; that is, it's just a fact about one guy rather than some general fact.P.D. Magnushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07799239684943144310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-23281057755184590952010-01-29T14:59:50.945-05:002010-01-29T14:59:50.945-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.P.D. Magnushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07799239684943144310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-38222603516297033292010-01-28T22:48:10.648-05:002010-01-28T22:48:10.648-05:00Hi P.D.
Doesn't Tim Maudlin use the example i...Hi P.D.<br /><br />Doesn't Tim Maudlin use the example in one of his papers of the blood type of Socrates?<br /><br />(I assume you are restricting your attention to uncontroversially 'scientific' questions, as opposed to being concerned with e.g. mind/body problem or fact/value distinction or other alleged in-principle barriers to science's scope.)<br /><br />Cheers,<br />RobertRobert Northcotthttp://www.umsl.edu/~northcottr/noreply@blogger.com