On Sun, 05 Sep 1999 19:07:16 -0500, efoster@lib.drury.edu wrote:
[...]
>>SJ>As I have previously pointed out in a debate with Brian Harper on the
>>>Reflector in 1998, even though Popper uses the word "recantation" it is
>>>clear that Popper never retracted his core claim that "Darwinism is not a
>>>testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme":
[...]
EF>Since Popper clearly says that there are available tests for this theory
>(natural selection), showing that this theory is indeed testable, I
>don't see how Stephen can interpret the whole paper the way he does.
Apart from the fact that Popper's actual words do not amount to a
`recantation', and Darwinist philosopher Ruse admits that "Popper...even now
does not really believe that Darwinism...is genuinely falsifiable";
Emmanuelle (and others) overlook one *crushing* fact, which I repeat:
"Popper first made his claim in *1974*, and issued his `recantation' in 1980,
yet the edition of Unended Quest (Popper's "Intellectual Autobiography") I
was quoting from was revised in *1982* after previous revisions in 1976
and 1978. If an author allows words to stand despite intense criticism
through *three* editions over the space of 8 years, then it is safe to say he
stands by them!"
It is simply *inconceivable* that a *philosopher* of Popper's standing,
whose whole stock-in-trade is *words* and their precise usage, in an issue
in which he was *vitally* aware (having been publicly criticised for it by the
Darwinists for over a decade), should revise other parts of his *intellectual
autobiography* two years *after* his `recantation', but leave *unchanged*,
without even a footnote, his original *1974* claim that: "Darwinism is not a
testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme", if he
didn't still believe that it was.
Steve
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"I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific
theory, but a metaphysical research programme-a possible framework for
testable scientific theories." (Popper K.R., "Unended Quest: An Intellectual
Autobiography", [1974], Open Court: La Salle, Ill., Revised Edition, 1982,
p168)
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
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