[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia:Fringe noticeboards/Theory

[Gwern Branwen]

On  0, geni <geniice at gmail.com> scribbled:
> On 7/7/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> > The oblate spheroid shape of the earth was not likely observable in
> > Aristotle's time.  Such a deviation from Aristotle's conclusion that the
> > Earth was a sphere is trivial.
>
> No because the Aristotelian model assumed perfect geometric shapes
> (see the shape of the orbitals). The perfect sphere thing also runs
> into problems if you manage to spot Baily's beads during an eclipse.
>
> Such a deviation was not trivial at all then because it would involve
> tearing apart a key part of the model.
>
> > It's premature to suggest that failing to mention Popper was indecent.
> >
> > Ec
>
> Popper provides us with a complete philosophy. Einstein less so
>
> It also slows down the rate with which we can bring up Imre Lakatos
> and then Paul Feyerabend and start punching holes on the claim.
>
> --
> geni

Oooh, and then can we begin discussing how Hempel's Raven paradox eluicidates precisely why confirmatory instances do so much less than disconfirmatory instances, and from there move on to a discussion of Bayesian vs. frequentists interpretations of observation and theory? (Possibly bringing a bit of computer science's denotational semantics by way of digital philosophy?)

--
gwern
IM IN UR UTILITY FUNCTION, DECREASING UR CONFIDENCE INTERVALS
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/attachments/20070708/961698d9/attachment.pgp