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Because explanatory stories aren't strictly necessary: While it certainly helps if we have them available because they allow us to reason intuitively, the hallm
by cygx 7y ago
Because explanatory stories aren't strictly necessary: While it certainly helps if we have them available because they allow us to reason intuitively, the hallmark of science is the predictive model.
In contrast, a bunch of explanatory stories lacking an underlying predictive model is what we call pseudo-science.
- konschubert 7y agoAn "interpretation of a theory" is not an "explanatory story, it's a way to map the equations ("shut up and calculate") to reality. It's not a contested notion that every theory needs an interpretation.
- cygx 7y agoI would phrase things differently: The way to map a theory to reality is via its predictions. The interpretation is how the theory fits into my mental model of reality. In principle, reality could be strange enough that we are incapable of holding a good model of reality in our brains that evolved to avoid getting eaten by lions instead of doing quantum mechanics. I certainly hope that's not the case, but neither can I rule it out.
- konschubert 7y agoI think you and me mean different things with “interpretation”. > The way to map a theory to reality is via its predictions. Agree, and I call this mapping an “interpretation”. (I thought this was the general usage of the word in the scientific context, but I may be wrong.)