Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA28258 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 4 Apr 2001 11:49:27 +0100 Message-ID: <3ACAFB62.B359F31D@bioinf.man.ac.uk> Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 11:45:54 +0100 From: Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk> Organization: University of Manchester X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Determinism References: <3AC904E5.10167.246146@localhost> <3AC9A569.258C00E9@bioinf.man.ac.uk> <20010403122328.A661@reborntechnology.co.uk> <3AC9D88B.47D228B1@bioinf.man.ac.uk> <20010403214234.A699@reborntechnology.co.uk> <005c01c0bc8e$bc8e6380$5eaefea9@rcn.com> <20010404090223.A10999@reborntechnology.co.uk> <3ACAECEF.D15F5D69@bioinf.man.ac.uk> <20010404111615.B679@reborntechnology.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Robin Faichney wrote:
>
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:44:15AM +0100, Chris Taylor wrote:
> > > > > Prove it.
> > > >
> > > > Ocam's Razor:
> > > > In explanation, don't multiply entities unnecessarily. Causality is
> > > > sufficient. The burden of evidentiary support rests upon the positive. It's
> > > > not for anyone else to prove that there ISN'T an unnecessary redundant
> > > > additional unknown factor aside from causality.
> > >
> > > "An unnecessary redundant additional unknown factor" is redundant (as
> > > well as incoherent). I'm only suggesting that perhaps some events don't
> > > have a cause. In this case, "there is nothing which happens that does
> > > not have a cause" is the positive upon which the burden of evidentiary
> > > support rests.
> >
> > This is science not law - that means (strictly speaking) you have to
> > disprove my assertion (my surmise of my general experience of the
> > world).
>
> Why?
Cos, er, that's the way it usually works. Put up a theory, then consider
it to be provisionally true until killed by the usual ugly little fact.
Darwinian evolution would be a good example.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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