Oxymoron...
Note: Don't read the following if you are not smart...it will only make your head hurt.
Today there was a discussion about how appropriate the phrase "accurately predict" is. I contend that it is an oxymoron because if you can accurately predict, then you are not predicting at all.
The point was raised that this is a valid phrase in the case of hypotheses. It was contended that the strength of a hypothesis is judged by how accurately it predicts the outcome of an experiment.
I called B.S., and believe that you don't judge the value of a hypothesis Ex post facto. The strength of a hypothesis is judged at the time it is presented based on the data present in the here and now. A very strong hypothesis can be proven false at a later date, but that does not mean that it was not a strong and valid hypothesis at the outset.
I now open the floor for comments:
posted by B @ 1:40 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
makes perfect sense to me... but i'm a special breed of people so that makes me able to understand almost anything :)
Yeah, but if it was such a strong hypothesis, why didn't it predict the right results? If the results don't support your hypothesis, then what good is it, really? At some point you have to make a judgment.
I agree with you...it always irritated me when you had a great hypothesis that was later disproven, and people jump all over you. Yes, it might have been proven wrong, but it was good and solid and made perfect sense. Jerks.
AMG
Kimv - Special breeding people? like the kind of person who does it underwater?
annette - Case in point:
You have a dog, and a pool. You come home one day and your dog is all wet. You say "I bet the dog has been swimming in the pool". It has happened in the past and is a strong hypothesis. You later find out that the dog had been across the street playing in the neighbor's sprinkler. Your hypothesis was proven wrong, but no one can say that at the time you made it that it was ill founded or unreasonable.
AMG - Yeah, and they act like they knew the truth all along and never believed anything you said. Like all those people who jumped on the guy who originally said the world was flat. As if they were never concerned about going to far and falling off the edge.
I only deal in theories.
is this about spontaneous combustion?
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