Ptolemy was not wrong! plus, entropic centrism

Use this forum to discuss the philosophy of science. Philosophy of science deals with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science.
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ernestm
Posts: 433
Joined: March 5th, 2018, 4:27 am

Ptolemy was not wrong! plus, entropic centrism

Post by ernestm »

This is now published on the Web. With thanks for all comments on the drafts.

https://yofiel.com/jesus/geocentrism.php

It includes pictures and videos, including my favorite lecture from Putnam. The section on demarcation is, if I may say so myself, quite outstanding.

Wishing you all a beautiful day )
Alan Masterman
Posts: 219
Joined: March 27th, 2011, 8:03 am

Re: Ptolemy was not wrong! plus, entropic centrism

Post by Alan Masterman »

Thank you, and the same to you.

Of course Ptolemy wasn't "wrong". Unlike religion, science theory doesn't deal in "right" and "wrong". Only in what works better, and what works worse. Unfortunately, Ptolemy's theory, though it worked well for more than a millennium, is now known to be less efficient than some others.

For a few centuries, Newton's theory of gravity was thought to be "right" and, for some cosmically-small-scale scenarios, it's still the easiest system to use; but on the largest scales, relativity theory is more "right", just as quantum theory is more "right" for the smallest.

As Bertrand Russell once said: there's no reason why the moon can't be made of green cheese, except that a rather huge body of unconventional scientific theory would need to be elaborated, to explain why it seems to be made of ordinary rock, while really being made of green cheese. It's far more economical to hypothesise that it's really made of rock, as it seems to be.
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