s0cratus
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Scientific heresy.
Matt Ridley lecture at the RSA in Edinburgh.
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2011/11 ... eresy.html
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Comment by Annonymous
In the nineteenth century many eminent physicists such as Maxwell and Lord Kelvin
believed in the ether theory.
Was the ether theory pseudoscientific?
If you think that the ether theory was pseudoscientific then it begins to seem that almost
all past scientists were pseudoscientists.
If you don't thnk that the ether theory was pseudoscientific but that the phlogiston theory
was could you explain what distinguishes the one as pseudoscientific but not the other?
Another question -
Maxwell spent an enormous amount of intellectual effort attempting to develop a mechanical
model of the electromagnetic field. Long ago virtually all physicists have abandoned this idea
and today it is almost totally forgotten.
Were Maxwell's unsuccessful attempts to develop a mechanical model of the electromagnetic
field an example of pseudoscience?
If so it seems that one of the greatest scientific minds of all time was a pseudoscientist.
You seem to use the term "pseudoscience" to include any scientific theory that is eventually
replaced or modified by a later theory.
Since modern physics consists of a number of mutually inconsistent theories e.g. general
relativity and QED, most physicists today hope that in the future more general theories will
be developed which will replace them.
If this happens does that mean that present day physics is a pseudoscience?
/ Annonymous /
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2011/11 ... 4#comments
===
Matt Ridley lecture at the RSA in Edinburgh.
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2011/11 ... eresy.html
=
Comment by Annonymous
In the nineteenth century many eminent physicists such as Maxwell and Lord Kelvin
believed in the ether theory.
Was the ether theory pseudoscientific?
If you think that the ether theory was pseudoscientific then it begins to seem that almost
all past scientists were pseudoscientists.
If you don't thnk that the ether theory was pseudoscientific but that the phlogiston theory
was could you explain what distinguishes the one as pseudoscientific but not the other?
Another question -
Maxwell spent an enormous amount of intellectual effort attempting to develop a mechanical
model of the electromagnetic field. Long ago virtually all physicists have abandoned this idea
and today it is almost totally forgotten.
Were Maxwell's unsuccessful attempts to develop a mechanical model of the electromagnetic
field an example of pseudoscience?
If so it seems that one of the greatest scientific minds of all time was a pseudoscientist.
You seem to use the term "pseudoscience" to include any scientific theory that is eventually
replaced or modified by a later theory.
Since modern physics consists of a number of mutually inconsistent theories e.g. general
relativity and QED, most physicists today hope that in the future more general theories will
be developed which will replace them.
If this happens does that mean that present day physics is a pseudoscience?
/ Annonymous /
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2011/11 ... 4#comments
===