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Old 08-09-2012, 11:39 AM   #71
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Default Falsifiability

This post, like my previous one, was not directed to Avi. He has simple decided that other people are wrong to use language as they do, especially in the scholarly world. He knows better. You cannot argue with a mind welded shut.
Quote:
Originally Posted by avi View Post
Without wasting any time looking through this list of links,
This is what I love: nothing gets in, refuse to look, why waste the time to notice the fact that the rest of the world--at least, the scholarly world--is using the notion of falsifiability productively?

Theories often don't contain means to finally validate them. The theory of evolution analyzes material that is unable to present a whole picture that allows one to say it must be right. However, new data that reflect on its contention that life evolved is discovered every day and if one datum cannot be shown to fit within the constraints of the theory, then, as the theory cannot hold it, it has been shown to be false.

If a theory does not under any circumstances contain the possibility of being falsifiable, ie that one can show a way that the theory could be false, then the theory has no significance.

Take the theory of a god. We certainly have no means to show it is true: gods don't seem to want to demonstrate they exist in any objective manner, so we can't verify the theory. There are no data for us to use to falsify the theory. How can one show there is no god? The theory is impenetrable and unproductive: we can't do anything with it. The god theory has no significance. Seriously by the definitions of the theory one can neither verify nor falsify god. That should be the end of the story. It is only through the denial of reason that it lingers. Because it is not falsifiable it is useless.

Falsifiability is entrenched in any coherent field of study. Theories must be falsifiable to have any value. Ask, can the theory be shown under any circumstances to be false? If it can't, drop it.

Quote:
I bet a wooden nickel, that 90% of them relate back, in some fashion, to Karl Popper.

Ok, smart folks, here you go:

Careful scrutiny of the documents attributed to Paul exchanged with the first century Roman author Seneca, reveals their falsification? What does that mean?

To me, it would mean their forgery. However, to spin, the eternal agnostic, it would mean their refutation. But, what is important in language, any language? Communication, no?

So, to the native Swahili speaker, what is the distinction? It is not so difficult for a native English speaker to discern the distinction between fraudulence and mere refutation, associated with using the German (i.e. Popper was a native German speaker) meaning of falsification. In that central European parent of English, there are two meanings of the word, and it is up to the reader, using context, to establish the correct meaning.

I dislike that notion. I prefer to employ words which convey a single meaning, to prevent ambiguity. I also consider Popper's "contribution" to be useless. He is much beloved by sociologists, but not by me.

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