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Re: Causation - how should we teach?



On 11/14/2003 07:55 PM, cliff parker wrote:
> It seems to me that many times it is necessary to bring our students
> thinking along by providing models that we know are incorrect but
> useful,

Yeah. Teaching is full of dilemmas.

But on the scale of dilemmas, the causation issue seems
trivial. I see no advantage to saying F causes ma. And
I see no cost to alternative formulations such as
-- F is associated with ma.
-- F can be calculated from ma and vice versa.
-- etc.


On 11/14/2003 11:30 PM, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:
>
> We are not doing "more harm than good." Generations of good
> physicists, engineers and inventors were thinking in that way.

That proves nothing.

Generations of "good" doctors thought that leeches
were a good way to cure earache, syphillis, and other
ailments.

Generations of "good" pilots were taught and believed
that as part of the recovery from a severe spiral dive,
you should pull back on the yoke. More than a few
died in the process of not-quite figuring out that was
a bad idea.

Progress necessitates doing some things differently
from our predecessors. Let's figure out what is the
right thing and do it.