Hello Bill,
From: billwald@juno.com
>"For followers of Karl Popper's analysis of science and how it should be
>done, there is no more dismal example of a metaphysical system
>masquerading as a science than the theory of evolution. Popper himself,
>in
>The Poverty of Historicism, singles out evolutionary theory for an
>attack.
>"Can there be a law of evolution?" "No, the search for the law of the
>'unvarying order' in evolution cannot possibly fall within the scope of
>scientific method...". By this, Popper means only that the history of
>living
>organisms and their transformations on Earth are a specific sequence of
>unique events, no different from, say, the history of England. Since it
>is a
>unique sequence, no generalities can be constructed about it." (Lewontin
>R.C., "Testing the Theory of Natural Selection," review of Creed R., ed.,
>"Ecological Genetics and Evolution," Blackwell: Oxford, 1971, Nature,
>Vol. 236, March 24, 1972, p.181).
>
>I agree 100%. Darwinism, as well as creationism, are metaphysical
>systems.
It sounds to me like you're agreeing with Popper, but not with Lewontin.
It's hard to be sure, from this small extract, what Lewontin means. But I
don't think he is agreeing with Popper. Can anyone give the context of this
quote, please?
Popper takes an extreme view of what is meant by "science". By this view, no
theory about past events can be scientific, which rules out the historical
parts of the theory of evolution and geology, not to mention creationism and
ID. But few (if any) scientists take such an extreme view of science.
For an accessible article about this issue, I recommend
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolphil/falsify.html
And for a more rigorous one:
http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~tkpw/tcr/volume-01/number-04/node19.html
>As Jesus said, "Sometimes stuff just happens," Luke 13:4, billwald
>paraphrase.
Sounds like Jesus didn't believe in cause and effect. ;-)
Richard Wein (Tich)
See my web pages for various games at http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~tich/
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