🚀 go-pugleaf

The MAGICIAN'S HAT model of science described below is perhaps too
metaphorical so less metaphorical examples could be instructive.

Example 1. The Magician, Divine Albert, puts in the hat his famous
false light postulate:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/ "...light is
always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity c which is
independent of the state of motion of the emitting body."

Immediately an absurdity jumps out of the hat:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/
ON THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF MOVING BODIES By A. Einstein June 30, 1905:
"...light is always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity
c which is independent of the state of motion of the emitting
body.....From this there ensues the following peculiar consequence. If
at the points A and B of K there are stationary clocks which, viewed
in the stationary system, are synchronous; and if the clock at A is
moved with the velocity v along the line AB to B, then on its arrival
at B the two clocks no longer synchronize, but the clock moved from A
to B lags behind the other which has remained at B by tv^2/2c^2 (up to
magnitudes of fourth and higher order), t being the time occupied in
the journey from A to B. It is at once apparent that this result still
holds good if the clock moves from A to B in any polygonal line, and
also when the points A and B coincide. If we assume that the result
proved for a polygonal line is also valid for a continuously curved
line, we arrive at this result: If one of two synchronous clocks at A
is moved in a closed curve with constant velocity until it returns to
A, the journey lasting t seconds, then by the clock which has remained
at rest the travelled clock on its arrival at A will be tv^2/2c^2
second slow."

However Divine Albert's worshippers do not see the absurdity (the
wolf); rather, they see a paradox (a rabbit). Then the "paradox"
becomes Divine Truth as worshippers discover that cosmic muons whose
speed is almost 300000km/s disintegrate very quickly as they bump into
a barrier and their speed instantly becomes zero. Worshippers call
muons undergoing such a terrible crash "muons at rest". On realizing
that non-crashing muons live longer than "muons at rest", worshippers
fiercely sing "Yes we all believe in relativity, relativity,
relativity" and go into convulsions.

Example 2. The Magician, Divine Albert, puts in the hat his famous
false light postulate. A few years later a falsehood jumps out of the
hat: the speed of light is constant in a gravitational field (it can
be shown, by applying the equivalence principle, that if the speed of
light is constant in the absence of a gravitational field, then it is
constant in the presence of a gravitational field as well). Needless
to say, worshippers do not see the falsehood (the wolf); rather, they
see Divine Truth (a rabbit), fiercely sing "Yes we all believe in
relativity, relativity, relativity" and go into convulsions.

In a state of temporary confusion, in 1911 Divine Albert unexpectedly
takes a true rabbit out of the hat: In a gravitational field the speed
of light is VARIABLE; it varies with the gravitational potential V in
accordance with the equation c'=c(1+V/c^2) given by Newton's emission
theory of light. Worshippers fiercely sing "Yes we all believe in
relativity, relativity, relativity" and go into convulsions.

Inspired by worshippers' songs, in 1915 Divine Albert takes another
falsehood out of the hat: the speed of light varies with the
gravitational potential V in accordance with the equation c'=c(1+2V/
c^2). Worshippers fiercely sing "Yes we all believe in relativity,
relativity, relativity" and go into convulsions.

Pentcho Valev wrote:

Lakatos' PROTECTIVE BELT philosophy is a special case of the
MAGICIAN'S HAT philosophy:

The MAGICIAN'S HAT philosophy: Science is taken to constitute the
interior of a magician's hat where you put ties which are then turned
to rabbits. The magician is free to secretly rearrange the interior of
the hat so that always rabbits and never wolves jump out of it. The
public declares itself ready to boycott the seances if wolves and not
rabbits jump out of the hat but in fact loves the magician so much
(there are hymns "Divine Magician" and "Yes we all believe in the hat,
hat, hat") that seances would take place even if Tyrannosaurus rex
jumped out of the hat.

Other contributions to the MAGICIAN'S HAT philosophy:

Karl Popper: "On the other hand, I also realized that we must not
exclude immunizations, not even all which introduce ad hoc auxiliary
hypothesis....All this shows not only that some degree of dogmatism is
fruitful, even in science, but also that logically speaking
falsifiability or testability cannot be regarded as a very sharp
criterion."

Thomas Kuhn: "Something even more fundamental than standards and
values is, however, also at stake. I have so far argued only that
paradigms are constitutive of science. Now I wish to display a sense
in which they are constitutive of nature as well."

Paul Feyerabend: "Today science prevails not because of its
comparative merits but because the show has been rigged in its
favour."

Pentcho Valev
pvalev@yahoo.com