RE: [asa] historical science?

The search for the Higgs boson is done just the same as the search of
other fundamental particles, in the laboratory. The data from the very
early universe serves as an incentive to create laboratory experiments
that can give unambiguous answers to very deep questions regarding the
constitution of matter.

Moorad

________________________________

From: Rich Blinne [mailto:rich.blinne@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 9:50 AM
To: George Murphy
Cc: Ted Davis; asa@calvin.edu; michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk;
Alexanian, Moorad
Subject: Re: [asa] historical science?

On Sep 10, 2007, at 6:41 AM, George Murphy wrote:

There is some point in talking about "historical sciences," though for
geology & astronomy it might be better to say "natural historical
sciences." But the notion that there is some fundamental difference
between them and other natural sciences is spurious.

Moreover, the distinction being discussed is decreasing with time. For
example, the search for the Higgs boson could rightly be called
experimental cosmology. The direction of time is also artificial for the
purpose of falsification as a hindcast can falsify just as much as a
forecast.

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Received on Mon Sep 10 10:29:20 2007