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Re: [ontolog-forum] Laws: physical and social

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Steven Ericsson-Zenith <steven@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2013 22:53:52 -0700
Message-id: <B1F651E1-8E94-4E42-A989-7475244FCB18@xxxxxxx>

Dear John,    (01)

I would add only the following because "the humility of science" is often 
misunderstood as "we can never know anything." And this is not the case.    (02)

That mathematics works so well speaks to the profound uniformity of the world, 
itself, naturally enough, a falsifiable assumption - but necessary if we are to 
know anything at all. While this uniformity holds there remains a case for 
"conceivable certainty." By it science is not forbidden from constructing an 
edifice of mathematics that is perfectly correct, describing the world in every 
way and lasting, it simply requires humility while we do so.    (03)

Obviously we are a long way from such an edifice, but if the profound 
uniformity of the world is sustained science will eventually find itself at a 
point where it is merely refining the mathematics involved toward its ultimate 
perfection.    (04)

At this point I trust we will no longer rely upon moral whimsy to establish the 
laws and principles of society, but will rather understand the natural laws of 
human behavior and will have designed our societies by that understanding.    (05)

If the world is not uniform in this way then all bets are off and we can know 
nothing by any means (not by science, not by omnipotent power).    (06)

Regards,
Steven    (07)

--
        Dr. Steven Ericsson-Zenith
        Institute for Advanced Science & Engineering
        http://iase.info    (08)




On Jun 9, 2013, at 7:35 PM, John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:    (09)

> All the laws anybody has discovered or proposed are fallible, and we
> can never be sure whether they will apply to any area for which they
> had not been tested.    (010)


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