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Re: [Phys-l] DATA, FACTS, LAWS, THEORIES



On 10/18/09 06:54, carmelo@pacific.net.sg wrote:
Quoting John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>:

Here's my take on truth, belief, and knowledge:
http://www.av8n.com/physics/truth.htm

This website on truth states that "Jupiter is observed to have four moons."
I would like to suggest refinement on this truth by including "Jupiter
has 63 confirmed moons."

It is preposterous to take one sentence out of context,
reverse its meaning, and suggest that it represents
the entire document.

1) Anybody who read that sentence in context would have
seen that two lines later is said "if you get a bigger
telescope, you see more moons".

2) More importantly, the "refinement" suggested above
calls this sentence a truth. It is not a truth and
I never claimed it was. The main point of the passage
in question, if you take the passage as a whole, is
that observations are not the same as truth. I was
explicitly distinguishing observation from truth. That
was the point. If somebody takes one sentence out of
context and uses it to make the exact mistake I was
warning against, I really don't know what to do.

I suppose I should revise this passage to make it
more defensive, but I doubt it will help. As the
saying goes, it is hard to make anything foolproof,
since fools are so ingenious.