Re: Are all crows black?

Article View: sci.logic

Article #31

#31

From: Charles R. Martin
Date: Sun, 01 Nov 1992 23:12

16 lines
1592 bytes

In article <1992Oct30.235244.463@black.ox.ac.uk> microsoc@black.ox.ac.uk (Microsoc) writes:

   As we seem to be on about Popper can anyone answer me this;
   How can you falsify (even in principle) a probabilistic theory, eg QM..?

At the risk of sounding facetious, the answer is "Probabilistically".
That is, the theory predicts a certain probability distribution; if
experiment shows a different distribution, it's a falsification.  Looked
at the other way, an experiment that establishes a particular
distribution eliminates the whole class of theories that predict another distribution.
--
		Charles R. Martin/(Charlie)/martinc@cs.unc.edu
     Dept. of Computer Science/CB #3175 UNC-CH/Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175
	    3611 University Dr #13M/Durham, NC 27707/(919) 419 1754
     "Oh God, please help me be civil in tongue, pure in thought, and able
      to resist the temptation to laugh uncontrollably.  Amen." -- Rob T

Technical Details

Message-ID: <MARTINC.92Nov1181255@grover.cs.unc.edu>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!wupost!decwrl!concert!borg!news_server!martinc

References:

<1992Oct27.043739.11703@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <27OCT199210172418@csa2.lbl.gov> <1992Oct27.192442.5509@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <1992Oct30.235244.463@black.ox.ac.uk>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!wupost!decwrl!concert!borg!news_server!martinc
From: martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin)
Newsgroups: sci.logic,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Are all crows black?
Message-ID: <MARTINC.92Nov1181255@grover.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 1 Nov 92 23:12:55 GMT
References: <1992Oct27.043739.11703@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
 <27OCT199210172418@csa2.lbl.gov>
 <1992Oct27.192442.5509@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
 <1992Oct30.235244.463@black.ox.ac.uk>
Sender: news@cs.unc.edu
Followup-To: sci.logic
Organization: UNC Department of Computer Science
Lines: 16
In-reply-to: microsoc@black.ox.ac.uk's message of 30 Oct 92 23:52:44 GMT

Reply to Parent Message