From: "Colin Wight" <Colin.Wight-AT-aber.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: BHA: RE: adjudicating between knowledge claims
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 16:20:34 +0100


Hi Everyone,

There I was thinking that I wouldn't get drawn into this again when I came
across the excerpt from Sokal and Bricmont's Intellectual Impostures (p.
56), talking about theory choice:


"However, we do not claim that these principles can be codified in a
definitive way, nor that the list is exhaustive. In other words there does
not exist (at least at present) a complete codification of scientific
rationality, and we seriously doubt that one could ever exist. After all,
the future is inherently unpredictable; rationality is always an adaptation
to a new situation. Nevertheless- and this is the main difference between us
and the radical sceptics - we think that well-developed scientific theories
are in general supported by good arguments, but the rationality of those
arguments must be analysed case-by-case."

cheers,

=================================Dr. Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Tel: 01970 621769
http://www.aber.ac.uk/~cow
===================================>



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