"The main reason for believing scientific theories (at least the bestverified ones) is that they explain the coherence of our experience. Let us be precise: here ‘experience’ refers to all our observations, including the results of laboratory experiments whose goal is to test quantitatively (sometimes to incredible precision) the predictions of scientific theories. … This agreement between theory and experiment, when combined with thousands of other similar though less spectacular ones, would be a miracle if science said nothing true – or at least approximately true – about the world. The experimental confirmations of the best-established scientific theories, taken together, are evidence that we really have acquired an objective (albeit approximate and incomplete) knowledge of the natural world."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science (1997), Chap. 4 : Intermezzo: Epistemic Relativism in the Philosophy of Science
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/No_miracles_argument
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
No miracles argument
6 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by No miracles argument →
Related Quotes
"The fantastic 12-digit agreement between the theoretical predictions of QED and the experimental results is a miracle…"
"I claim that the success of current scientific theories is no miracle. It is not even surprising to the scientific (D…"
"Realism is not a dirty word. If you wonder why all scientists, philosophers, and ordinary people, with rare exception…"
"Not merely trainee and professional members of the medical profession commit the base-rate fallacy. Even very eminent…"
"The positive argument for realism is that it is the only philosophy that doesn't make the success of science a miracle."
"There seems to be a vast landscape of possible universes. ... We live in one in which life is possible, but if the un…"
"Once one starts to admit anthropic interpretations of fine-tuning problems like the cosmological constant, it is clea…"
"The old cosmological constant problem is to understand why the is so small; the new problem is to understand why it i…"
"One needs occasionally to stand aside from the hum and rush of human interests and passions to hear the voices of God…"
"Make Christianity your own, and it will show you a point outside the world, and by means of this you will move heaven…"