Nick
So why haven't we seen your published review of Deutsch's book??
Terry
On 10/8/06 4:04 PM, "Nicholas Maxwell" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Ian,
>
> I have read "The Fabric of Reality". I admired the early
> part, because it is beautifully written, and because of its admirable
> emphasis on the quest to understand, on the fundamental role it plays in
> science. I thought that, towards the end, the book becomes somewhat mad.
> Half way through, Deutsch reveals himself to be a faithful Popperian. I
> pointed out to him that the persistent way in which science only accepts
> explanatory theories, even though endlessly many empirically more successful
> disunified, non-explanatory rivals can always be concocted, means that
> science surreptitiously accepts a metaphysical (unfalsifaible) thesis to the
> effect that the universe is (more or less) comprehensible (being such that
> no disunified theory is true). This contradicts Popper's view of science.
> Furthermore, for good Popperian reasons, the substantial, influential,
> problematic and implicit metaphysical assumption concerning the physical
> comprehensibility of the universe ought to be made explicit within science,
> so that it can be criticized and, we may hope, improved. This leads to a
> new conception of science - which I have called "aim-oriented empiricism".
> He agreed.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Nick
> www.nick-maxwell.demon.co.uk
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "ian glendinning"
> Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 11:20 PM
> Subject: David Deutsch
>
>
>> Nick et al,
>>
>> I was reading some of the material on your site in preparation for
>> diving into a couple of threads left dangling on here, inlcuding a
>> couple of your questions.
>>
>> The biography, the history of how your ideas / books came to be is
>> very interesting, reminds me I must actually read couple of them
>> properly.
>>
>> A point that struck me was the development of your views on Popper,
>> and the distinction between rationales of causation and explanation.
>> Something which rang bells with the work of David Deutsch ... in
>> particular his "Fabric of Reality". Are you familiar with David's work
>> ? Do you have any views on its relevance to our purpose here ?
>>
>> Regards
>> Ian
>>
>>
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