Colin Geoffrey Hales wrote:
>>As Brent Meeker has pointed out, physical theories are just models to make
>>predictions about how the world works*. If physists get carried away and
>>say
>>"this is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" then they
>>are
>>talking metaphysics, not physics.
>>
>>Stathis Papaioannou
>>
>
>
> The archaic usage of the word metaphysics, which became a pejorative
> somewhere around the time of Kant, is no longer viable or productive. The
> modern usage of the term Meta = about... far more productive.
>
> meta-chemistry example...table of elements
> meta-data ... computer science term
> meta-mathematics ... 'about' a mathematics
I agree, let's write it meta-physics.
>
> I'd like to eliminate the older usage of the term. It doesn't work as a
> descriptor, especially in physics!
>
> You're right about the physicists, though... they are the most
> 'model-bound' in all science. Their beliefs about what they do...in effect
> a theology of mathematical models... is worst in cosmology. To continue to
> believe in the intractability of any formulation of an underlying reality
> in spite of glaring evidence to the contrary...and that it is deserved of
> a pejorative label is.....
You have a formulation of an underlying reality which is not only tractable, but for
which you have glaring evidence of its tractability? Is it also correct? I'd like
to see it.
Brent Meeker
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Received on Thu Aug 24 2006 - 20:56:34 PDT