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> The problem with physics today is rationalism - constructing theories with only partial reference to experimental data. Some fields, like psychology, have the
by johncolanduoni 10y ago
> The problem with physics today is rationalism - constructing theories with only partial reference to experimental data. Some fields, like psychology, have the opposite problem - empiricism - where they accumulate countless statistical correlations but fail to integrate them into consistent theories.
"Rationalism" is still serving us very well in pretty much every other field of physics except unification theories. We're still coming up with great new theoretical models based on working with the laws we have, sometimes driven by the need to explain existing experimental results and sometimes to look for new places to do fruitful experiments. There's a much better balance between the two for physics as a whole than you're making it out to be.
I'm not sure how wrapping in Ayn Rand's theories with all their politics is going to streamline physics.
- adrianratnapala 10y agoI think then, that by IsaacL's definition, those other parts of physics where theory and experiment are well balanced don't suffer from (excess) "rationalism", which he seems to define as a reliance on theory without experiment.