tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148573551417578681.post1213134964681156959..comments2024-03-27T19:47:13.475-07:00Comments on Dark Buzz: Prejudice against positivismRogerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03474078324293158376noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8148573551417578681.post-91042383528824998022012-08-30T12:01:09.908-07:002012-08-30T12:01:09.908-07:00I would classify myself as a positivist, but I thi...I would classify myself as a positivist, but I think there is a timescale problem. <br /><br />If someone devises a theory requiring a previously unknown particle, as Higgs did, then as we know he couldn’t demonstrate his particle’s existence experimentally – not at that time. So we have to be flexible in allowing time to devise the experiments.<br /><br />Too many scientists seem to take this flexibility as a remit to stay with theory forever. Multiverse and string theorists seem to do this. Yet it seems to me you can’t easily put a time limit on what they are doing. You can’t easily say, after such and such a period you must have experimental confirmation.<br /><br />So we end up claiming that some scientists aren’t even looking for experimental confirmation, which may be true but is denied or dismissed as inappropriate. Too often it isn’t inappropriate.<br />A K Haarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05897490979828603179noreply@blogger.com