Quote:
Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite
I'm guessing here but science is built on theories. When a theory is proved wrong then it's discarded and another, hopefully better, theory replaces it. Science can't actually prove a theory to be true but it can prove one false. All the current scientific theories are therefore "trusted" to be true until proved otherwise.
Just my 2c
|
This is a misrepresentation. I much prefer Tom's quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
I think Stephen J. Gould said it best:
.....In science "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
..........— Stephen Jay Gould, (1941 –2002. "Evolution as Fact and Theory"; Discover, May 1981.
|
It is misguiding to say that science cannot prove a theory to be true. I suppose there might be a very small chance that another, better explanation of why apples fall may appear some day, but the probability is so low it's not worth mentioning.
It is also misguiding to say that theories are accepted until proven false. Before a theory is accepted, even provisionally, it must at least be considered to be plausible. By plausible I mean that it fits the facts and laws of physics as we already know them, or if it contradicts them, it must present reproduceable facts in support of their new questions, and/or new answers.
I will admit that there is an element of trust. I cannot check myself most of the scientific facts that I have been taught. I trust them to be true because I know they can be, have been and continue to be checked by scientists. I guess that scientists themselves cannot personally check all the fact, so they have to accept some of them on "trust", meaning
on the knowledge that others have verified them using proven scientific methods.
I was going to say that I don't see what philosophy can gain by questioning this, but it's not true. There are some fascinating questions about science and how it evolves. More on that later, I hope (I do have to pretend to work for a living...).