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>The scientific method is perfect. Nonsense. Nothing is perfect, especially nothing ever created by a human. The scientific method is the best we have develope

by LocalH 5y ago

>The scientific method is perfect. Nonsense. Nothing is perfect, especially nothing ever created by a human. The scientific method is the best we have developed, in my opinion, but it's not perfect. The scientific method itself was developed by "fallible and irrational humans". Even with the best of intentions and the utmost in effort, all humans are susceptible to fallibility and irrationality. You are, I am, everyone is.

rcoveson 5y ago
The word/concept "perfect" was "developed" by "fallible and irrational humans" as well, so we do have the authority to apply it. The 3/4/5 right triangle is perfect. The perfect fifth in music is (tautologically) perfect. "p or not p" is perfect. Perhaps none of these things can be reproduced in the physical world in a perfect manner, but the concepts really are perfect. Anything in idea-space can in fact be perfect, and the scientific method lives in idea-space. In the realm of perfection, there isn't really any difference between "developing" something and "discovering" it. Did we "develop" the scientific method or "discover" it? I think that's a meaningless distinction. It's the loop that describes how inductive reasoning is applied by limited observers to a structured universe. People were doing it before it was "developed".
- angelzen 5y ago
  This is confusing models with reality. It is the application of any specific model to reality that is not perfect.
  - rcoveson 5y ago
    Yes, one might say: > Perhaps none of these things can be reproduced in the physical world in a perfect manner, but the concepts really are perfect.