So religion, if not animism, goes on the postulational side, right? We say things like, the Greeks explained the behavior of the oceans by having an ocean-god, the behavior of the skies by having a sky-god, volcanoes get a volcano-god, and so on. In the same way that science posits gravity to explain why apples fall to the earth, the Greeks posited Aeolus to explain the winds. Same thing. — Srap Tasmaner
And I can already hear you saying "that's exactly what it is", so please stop and think about how theoretical frameworks work, what is involved a positing a new type of entity, and so on. Maybe you could find another source besides me to explain how science works. Maybe you can come back and tell me I'm all wrong. We've probably already reached the limits of my understanding here, so I'd be happy to stipulate that I have no more to offer by way of further explanation. — Srap Tasmaner
Compare my door example to the discovery of Neptune: one involves postulating a person at the moment not visible to you because he is occluded by a solid object; the other involves the prediction of the existence of an as-yet unobserved planet based on mathematics, within a framework that includes gravity as described by Newton's equations. In a sense, the deduction is careful or systematic common sense, just math and inference, but the framework is not common sense, it's Newtonian physics. — Srap Tasmaner
which is not to say I understood it all — Janus
the discovery of Neptune — Janus
The prediction of a planet is not the big posit here, but gravity. — Srap Tasmaner
Part of the problem is the limited format of things like twitter, youtube and reddit, these formats lend themselves, not to quality, but to misinformation, they literally give an advantage to pathological personality types. — JerseyFlight
we always have (by acquaintance) known its effects. — Janus
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.