Re: The straw man.
H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
24 Oct 1995 17:06:53 -0400
n8010095@cc.wwu.edu (Phillip Bigelow) writes:
>hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu (H. M. Hubey) writes:
>>2) Whatever is not false is true until shown to be false.
> In science, whatever is UNKNOWN is held to be suspect until proven true,
>or until falsified.
> Therefore, a theory is not held to be true...it is held suspect.
> <pb>
In logic (and in real life) you can always show a generalization
to be false by providing a counterexample, and nobody argues
against it, not even people who don't know logic. As for definition
of truth, it actually seems to be of a provisional nature. Something
is true at best provisionally or temporarily. But whatever is false
is definitely false. So with theories.
--
Regards, Mark
http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey
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