From: open1-AT-execpc.com
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 09:40:04 -0700
Subject: Re: PLC: Science or Poetry?


Michael Greer wrote:
> 
> Any discussion of science should take place within the context of
> Hempel's work on induction. Doesn't his position show that the
> hypothetical-deductive approach to questions concerning phenomena
> relies on the trope of invention: we simply make up something and then
> see if the data cohere with that something. "Confirmation" is then
> what takes place when all the necessary "evidence" have been
> organized to harmonize with the "hypothesis". This is not a statement:
> it's a request for clarification.
> 
> Michael Greer

I think that this is substantially correct as far as it goes. I think 
that there are at least three modes of "induction:" Abstraction, on the 
Thomistic model, repetitious association on the Hume-Mill model, and 
hypothesis-confirmation on the HDM model.  Of course, I do not think that 
we "simply make something up" in forming a hypothesis, rather we 
typically reason by analogy.

Dennis Polis