George Herbert wrote:
On 9/17/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net>
wrote:
Similarly, neutrality does not imply any need for
long-winded
debunkings, nor does it require labeling with such epithets as
"pseudoscience". Certain avenues of scientific investigation eventually
failed when more information became available, and eventually faded from
public consciousness. It is grossly disingenuous to attach retroactive
value judgements on these failed theories. That these avenues were once
pursued remains as an historical fact deserving of a proper
explanation. Anyone reading old material will encounter literary
references to these concepts, and should be able to find an explanation
about what the author is saying without wading through a lot of
polemics. The failure of many of these theories can often be stated in
one short paragraph that undermines a fundamental premise for the theory.
Ray;
With all due respect, quite a number of these "theories" are never
sufficiently credible to be properly called scientific in the first
place.
That's applying to-day's hindsight to the limited knowledge of former
times. Science involves applying certain principles of investigation to
a subject. When those processes yield negative results it does not mean
that the efforts were unscientific. Judging the theories as not
credible even before the hypotheses have been tested is just as
unscientific as your characterisation of the proponents.
I do not believe in being so neutral and open minded
that our brains
fall out and we fail to distinguish between serious science that
turned out in the end to be wrong on one side, and interplanetary
billiards a la Velikovsky, creationism, and the like on the other.
"Brains falling out" is not scientific language. A fair treatment of
Velikovsky's ideas is best done without preconceptions. Being fair still
has plenty of room for finding theories wrong.
The latter are not science, and we do a disservice to
the readers if
we call them that.
Science is a process. We also do them a disservice when we do
not give
them the opportunity to draw their own conclusions.
Ec