Re: Re: Evolution is alive and well
Brian D Harper (bharper@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu)
Tue, 13 Oct 1998 16:41:43 -0400
At 01:19 PM 10/12/98 -0500, Moorad wrote:
>At 11:07 AM 10/10/98 -0500, Glenn R. Morton wrote:
>
>[deleted]
>
>>One can do this with almost any theory and end up saying that we know
>>nothing about everything. How does Gravity cause bodies to attract?
>>Gravitons? Then how do gravitons move? What keeps them going at the speed
>>of light? What IS a graviton? Are there other particles that make up
>>gravitons, in other words is a graviton a composite particle? etc. etc. etc.
>>
>>This technique is a bit like the child that always asks why. One can
>>always say we don't know everthing, but that doesn't mean we know nothing.
>>glenn
>
>You bring up the best example of what a theory is and other theories ought
>to be. The gravitational force does not really explain why bodies fall but
>once posited allows us to make predications. For instance, the gravitational
>force proposed by Newton, for instance, unified terrestrial and celestial
>mechanics. Needless to say it allowed us to send men to the moon.
>
Interesting comments with which I agree. But, if I remember
correctly, the reason Glenn brought this up was due to
the insistence by someone (forget who) that successful
scientific theories need to have mechanisms. Interestingly
enough, this is the same criticism applied to Newton. Recall
Leibniz' infamous accusation that Newton was trying to
introduce occult qualities into science. Newton had no
mechanism nor would he feign one: "Hypothesis non fingo".
But Newton won because his law made sense of a wide range
of phenomena.
Many have viewed Darwin's theory as being highly successful
for the same reason. It makes sense of a wide range of
phenomena. In view of Newton, this would seem justified
even if a detailed understanding of the mechanisms is not
known.
Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
The Ohio State University
"It appears to me that this author is asking
much less than what you are refusing to answer"
-- Galileo (as Simplicio in _The Dialogue_)