Hi Platt and All
I couldn't resist this one. I should know better by now but.....
On 22 Feb 2002 at 9:58, Platt Holden wrote:
> Yes, science is ABSOLUTELY provisional. Pirsig admits of NO
> exceptions.
>From the Concise oxford Dictionary
Provisional - providing for immediate needs only: temporary.
Absolute - Unconditional, unlimited,
So science is unconditionally temporary is it? Or is it absolutely non-absolute? Non-
temporarily temporary maybe ?
And here was me thinking you weren't too keen on post-modernism! :^)
If something is absolutely true then there can be no exceptions but in order for this to be
valid it is necessary to have absolute knowledge and as we don't have absolute
knowledge of all things relating to science (or anything else for that matter) we can't be
absolutely certain of the absolute nature of Science.
Something can be absolutely true by definition (a batchelor is an unmarried man) or by
logical derivation (X=X) but that's about as far as we can go with absolutes. Our
knowledge of the world is incomplete and thus provisional so to make a statement about
it's nature in absolute terms is non-sensical.
But as I don't have absolute knowlege I could be wrong.
Horse
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