> I have a theory : Water boils at -40 C. Lets do an experiment here.
>Hummm? What's this? Seems to be a block of ice that's not doing
>anything! Ah but I know can't trust my senses, no less an authority than
>Popper tells me I'm falling prey to authority! I best not throw that
>theory out then, afterall I know I can't trust what my senses are
>telling me! It's funny though, even though I've yet to throw anything
>out I seem to be getting nowhere! That's O.K. it's just my senses
>fooling me again so I know I'm progressing just fine!
>The Nateman
The senses can get used in 2 different thought processes.
In Objectivism,you use what you've already seen to come to a theory. In the
scientific method, which the experiment you described was based on, you
first state a theory and then use the senses in the process of testing the
theory. Here's an example of the 2 thought processes. An Objectivist like
Nate might see my posts and come to a conclusion that I've never been an
avid objectivist. A scientific way of looking at the issue, would be,
forming a theory that I've never been an avid Objectivist and then checking
to see if that's the case, by asking me, looking at the archives from
earlier this year, among othe tests. I have found that the Objectivist
method, in which you first see things and then draw conclusions, leads to
many assumptions that can get falsified by checking. Nate--you even
admitted that you saw the way Objectivists jump to conclusions, as if they
think they know more than they do. Have you ever considered there might be
a problem with the inductive method and the notion of "contextual
certainty"? --David R.