Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id RAA16111 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 22 Mar 2001 17:52:21 GMT From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 11:55:07 -0600 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: Quoted-printable Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme Message-ID: <3AB9E81B.6216.29FED2@localhost> In-reply-to: <3ABA0D52.2F25FE03@bioinf.man.ac.uk> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 22 Mar 2001, at 14:33, Chris Taylor wrote:
> > Observation without theory doesn't come within
> > a million miles of being scientific.
>
> It's interesting though (and this is an aside, not a comment on the
> main thrust) round where I am, there's a lot of this genome-wide gene
> expression data washing about, with people essentially fishing for
> interesting stuff and only then coming up with a theory to take
> account of it (if at all - all the big pharmers want is more drug
> targets to treat [not cure] illness, but perhaps they're more
> engineers than scientists). Rest assured that this industrial-scale
> arse-first approach is not without critics, but I think observation
> (in a less focused form) does predate theory formation in scientific
> investigation (although the two are both required obviously, otherwise
> you just have superstition/religion).
>
Observation does precede theory, for theory is not imposed upon
observation so much as it is drawn from a generalization of the
obseved's apparent characteristics, as an explanation of them,
which is then checked against the not-yet-observed within the
class to see if it still holds. If the theory remains valid, then its
consequences are deduced, and these are tested. If it still holds
through repeated trials under controlled conditions intended to filter
out rogue variables, then the theory is (provisionally) accepted.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
> http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> ===============================================================
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>
>
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For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
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