Evolution quote 6 Aug 2010 As all sciences are based upon facts, known, or to be known from experience, so are they, in their early state of developement [sic], matters of pure observation. It is only when we have acquired the power of generalising these facts, when such generalisations agree among themselves and with every thing we see or know of nature, that the theory of a science becomes either absolutely demonstrative, or approaches so near to certainty, by the force of analogical reasoning, that it is not contradicted by anything known. The case of natural history, then, is precisely this; in its early stages it is a science of observation; in its latter, it is one of demonstration. [William Swainson. 1834. Preliminary discourse on the study of natural history. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, page 105.] Swainson is one of the infamous “Quinarians”, but his discussion on natural classification is influential. It is clear that Darwin had read him and his history of classification in the preceding chapter. History Natural Classification Quotes Science Systematics History
Epistemology Information is the new Aristotelianism (and Dawkins is a hylomorphist) 27 Apr 201428 Apr 2014 In seeking tales and informations [Henry VIII, Act V, scene 3] For some time now* I have had problems with the notion of information. Not, please note, with this or that piece of information, but with the notion itself, especially in the natural sciences. In this age of computers and internets,… Read More
General Science Etruscans 20 Jun 200718 Sep 2017 In a well known quote, the nineteenth century historian and classicist Theodore Mommsen said that the origins of the Etruscans was “neither capable of being known nor worth the knowing”. He had no idea of the results made possible by molecular genetic studies, naturally, as nobody did at that time,… Read More
Biology A not terribly good post on the species problem 18 Jul 2019 As a biological phenomenon the species problem is worthy of serious study as an end in itself, and not as a mere corollary to work in some other field. It is, to be sure, a problem so fundamentally important that it touches many such fields. Workers in any one of… Read More
If: 1). Science zeros in on certainly about what is 2). An ought cannot be derived from what is. 3). An ought can change what is. then …can science ever approach any ultimate truth about what is? (may also have relevance to a previous topic)