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String Theory: Science or Philosophy

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Author Topic:   String Theory: Science or Philosophy
Trae
Member (Idle past 4337 days)
Posts: 442
From: Fremont, CA, USA
Joined: 06-18-2004

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Message 25 of 34 (190466)
03-07-2005 11:52 AM 		Reply to: Message 19 by 1.61803
12-30-2004 5:52 PM

Re: A waste of time
Wow. That must have been put up when I was out at the bars on Atheists' day.
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Trae
Member (Idle past 4337 days)
Posts: 442
From: Fremont, CA, USA
Joined: 06-18-2004

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Message 26 of 34 (190473)
03-07-2005 12:20 PM 		Reply to: Message 24 by gnojek
02-25-2005 5:24 PM

So, is math a science? Well, the study of math can be done scientifically, but a mere equation or set of equations is not "science."
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From my conversations with epistemologists I would have to disagree. I think people are hung up on the abstractness of Math. A theory is also abstract, yet one wouldn't go as far to suggest that theorizing isn’t scientific.
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Trae
Member (Idle past 4337 days)
Posts: 442
From: Fremont, CA, USA
Joined: 06-18-2004

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Message 28 of 34 (190593)
03-08-2005 10:07 AM 		Reply to: Message 27 by Zhimbo
03-07-2005 1:34 PM

Hey, I’ll grant yours is the most commonly held position, though it wasn’t that long ago when math was considered metaphysical.
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I think we’ll see more and more people arguing that empiricism is not the sole determinate of what constitutes a science. In the case of mathamatics, one can argue collective knowledge (Kuhnian paradigm), links to other scientific disciplines, and creation of new knowledge.
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People do seem currently more happy labeling it as a language or tool.
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