Recent content by DBT

Here's an article. "The report describes how one of the supposed fundamental constants of Nature appears not to be constant after all. Instead, this 'magic number' known as the fine-structure constant -- 'alpha' for short -- appears to vary throughout the universe."...

If a God - being omnipotent and omniscient - created the world and humans, He created them to be precisely the way they are.

No, as the brain acquires information and forms a mental representation of the external world....which happens prior to thought. A mental representation that is constantly being tested against an objective world that cares nothing about our thoughts, beliefs or interpretations. Where if you...

God exists and He is the prankster that created a nutty world?

No, there is the physical world with its objects and events.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?

There is something that comes prior to theory.

'P' as in Predictability? Results? Satellites, Landers on the moon, Venus, Mars, Titan, World Wide Web, etc, etc.......which is not the work of philosophy, but science. Hence the distinction.

At what point do you say that philosophy comes into the picture? Observation does not appear to be a matter of philosophy. Gathering information does not appear to be philosophy. Experimentation and testing of information does look like philosophical inquiry. Forming hypothesis or theory...

Not a hundred percent. The distinction to be made between philosophy and science is the reason why we have two words, science and philosophy. Science is not the same as philosophy...so at times it starts to sound like theists with their rationale ''it's all a matter of faith.''

Is empiricism not related to the facts of the natural world? I would that say it is, that at some point science became separated from philosophy.

There is a distinction to be made between observation and testing which is scientific enquiry and philosophy as a rational enquiry into abstract concepts, the meaning of life, morality, ideology, etc. Empirical testing in contrast to rational exploration of ideas and concepts. There may be...

Interpretation or theory is determined by observation and testing. Which appears to be a matter of science, not philosophy. But this is getting off track, so I'll leave it to the other thread.

Physics.

It's the latter that's being disputed. Observing the natural world is not philosophy. Learning how the world works is not philosophy. Any species of animal that has a sufficiently complex CNS, is able to observe and experience its environment and learn how to interact with it. That is not...