4 ms·
It's philosophically problematic to say that one theory can be truer than another if they both explain the same facts and yield the same predictions. This would
by olavk 15y ago
It's philosophically problematic to say that one theory can be truer than another if they both explain the same facts and yield the same predictions. This would mean that there is a notion of truth which cant be verified or falsified experimentally, which really opens the door for all kinds of metaphysics.
- Retric 15y agoLet's suppose you have three theories that fit all known observations. F=MA vs F = (M+1/(10^300))A vs F = (M+1/((10+M)^300))*A If you can't build an experiment that shows that tiny constant perhaps it's meaningless complexity and in some ways less true.
- ignifero 15y agoAll 3 formulas are equally true then. Occam suggests you use the simplest. Just like in programming, where one prefers to write as little code as possible.
- 6ren 15y agoLet's say I have a theory that can explain the complete works of Shakespeare so well, that an algorithm based on it (written in C) can generate the complete works. Now, it turns out that my "theory" is just a printf with a loong string... containing the complete works of Shakespeare. You can measure how "simple" this theory is, by the information content. What if there was another theory (algorithm) that could also generate the works exactly, but was shorter - would you say it's a better theory?