Re: PSEUDO-SCIENCE ?

[Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

"Glenn A. Carlson" wrote:

> What about all those chemists who "mastered" the phlogiston
> theory? Or those physicists who "mastered" the ether theory?
>
> Also, I don't consider geometry or algebra to be sciences,
> because mathematicians don't use the scientific method.

The last sentence can be challenged by those who believe that
"proving theorems with computers" is an experimental component
of mathematics. And by those who observe how mathematicians
actually work, not how they present the products of their work in
textbooks. I read recently that proofs were often produced after the
discoveries. Numerical and graphical experimentation was always
part of mathematics.

If I recall correctly, the ether model was actually used by Maxwell
to derive his equations. They were modified later to reflect better
models. And alchemists were the best chemists; they discovered
and described many chemical properties of matter. In practical
terms many of them new chemistry much better than some of
us (myself included) know it today.
Ludwik Kowalski