Re: 1. a couple of questions, 2. Re: design: purposeful or

Brian D Harper (harper.10@osu.edu)
Thu, 20 Mar 1997 00:29:39 -0500

At 06:06 AM 3/20/97 +0800, Steve Jones wrote:

>Group
>
>On Fri, 07 Mar 1997 08:47:56 -0500, Brian D Harper wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>>SJ>Where did I say that "MN has nothing to do with whether nature is all
>>there is"? A feature of Brian's posts is that he often subtly
>>re-words what I say. If I am not careful, I find myself defending
>>terminology that Brian has inserted into the debate. I would suggest
>>to Brian that he do what I do and quote his opponents *actual
>>words*, not a paraphrase of what he thinks they said.
>
>BH>Sigh.....
>>
>>Okay, here are your actual words:
>>
>>=============================================================
>>From: "Stephen Jones" <sejones@ibm.net>
>>To: "evolution@ursa.calvin.edu" <evolution@ursa.calvin.edu>
>>Date: Tue, 18 Feb 97 19:31:20 +0800
>>Reply-To: "Stephen Jones" <sejones@ibm.net>
>>Priority: Normal
>>Subject: Re: a couple of questions
>>Sender: owner-evolution@udomo.calvin.edu
>>
>>[...]
>>
>>BH>The difference is that "the principle that science can study only
>>>the things that are accessible to its instruments and techniques"
>>>has nothing to do with whether "nature is all there is".
>>
>>SJ>Agreed. But Brian needs to read a bit more carefully. I only said
>>that methodological naturalists "must *ASSUME* that
>>nature is all there is in doing science."
>>============================================================
>
>SJ>How does Brian get:
>
>BH>"MN has nothing to do with whether nature is all there is"
>
>from
>
>SJ>methodological naturalists "must *ASSUME* that nature is all
>>there is in doing science."?
>

Terribly sorry, Steve. My fault entirely.

I wrote:

>>>The difference is that "the principle that science can study only
>>>the things that are accessible to its instruments and techniques"
>>>has nothing to do with whether "nature is all there is".

And you wrote "Agreed".

For some reason I re-interpreted this to mean that you agreed
with what I wrote. Tell me, just what was it you were agreeing
with?

Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
The Ohio State University

"Because there's no primordial soup;
we all know that, right?" -- Leo Buss