4 ms·

He's redefining "theory" as "fact," and also "hypothesis" as "theory" essentially, yeah? If you use dual meanings for words. Smart people use theory to mean "f

by bisby 4y ago

He's redefining "theory" as "fact," and also "hypothesis" as "theory" essentially, yeah? If you use dual meanings for words. Smart people use theory to mean "fact" but politicians use it to mean "hypothesis" then they can discredit things through playing semantic games.

chx 4y ago
Even if we were that charitable why not discuss scientific hypotheses in a school? "This is what we know, this is what we suspect, this is what we do not know." -- best way to teach about the world and also to keep an open mind. I love that way so much more than teaching a subject as if we had answers about everything. Sure you need to be clear about it but that is no reason for a state legislature to get involved.
mollusk_bound 4y ago
Except even scientists will often use "hypothesis" and "theory" interchangeably. For example Stephen Jay Gould's theory on punctuated equilibrium, kin selection (theory) vs group selection (theory), all the various names given to Williams/Dawkins/Ridley's theories on evolution, all the various theories relating ontogeny to phylogeny, and on and on. All these things are probably more properly referred to as hypotheses within the broader theory of evolution, where here the meaning of theory switches to be more in line with the "true" definition of theory. But maybe this is just an idiosyncrasy of evolutionary biologists, I'm not familiar enough with other fields. But then again there are all of those mathematical "theories" like group theory, number theory, set theory, game theory, and on and on. Not sure how to categorize these. Point is we (scientists/scientific communicators) often make this hardline distinction between the meaning of "theory" and "hypothesis" but regularly break our own rule.
- mollusk_bound 4y ago
  I actually recalled some that aren't just evolutionary biology: string theory (physics) and rational choice theory (economics) neither of which really deserve to be called theories if we are sticking to the strict definition, but yet scientists do.
- chx 4y ago
  See my answer above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34702479 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34702479
- mcphage 4y ago
  > But then again there are all of those mathematical "theories" like group theory, number theory, set theory, game theory, and on and on. Not sure how to categorize these. "Theory" has a different meaning in mathematics than in science.

by bisby 4y ago

chx 4y ago

Even if we were that charitable why not discuss scientific hypotheses in a school? "This is what we know, this is what we suspect, this is what we do not know." -- best way to teach about the world and also to keep an open mind. I love that way so much more than teaching a subject as if we had answers about everything. Sure you need to be clear about it but that is no reason for a state legislature to get involved.

mollusk_bound 4y ago

Except even scientists will often use "hypothesis" and "theory" interchangeably. For example Stephen Jay Gould's theory on punctuated equilibrium, kin selection (theory) vs group selection (theory), all the various names given to Williams/Dawkins/Ridley's theories on evolution, all the various theories relating ontogeny to phylogeny, and on and on. All these things are probably more properly referred to as hypotheses within the broader theory of evolution, where here the meaning of theory switches to be more in line with the "true" definition of theory. But maybe this is just an idiosyncrasy of evolutionary biologists, I'm not familiar enough with other fields. But then again there are all of those mathematical "theories" like group theory, number theory, set theory, game theory, and on and on. Not sure how to categorize these. Point is we (scientists/scientific communicators) often make this hardline distinction between the meaning of "theory" and "hypothesis" but regularly break our own rule.

mollusk_bound 4y ago
I actually recalled some that aren't just evolutionary biology: string theory (physics) and rational choice theory (economics) neither of which really deserve to be called theories if we are sticking to the strict definition, but yet scientists do.
chx 4y ago
See my answer above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34702479 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34702479
mcphage 4y ago
> But then again there are all of those mathematical "theories" like group theory, number theory, set theory, game theory, and on and on. Not sure how to categorize these. "Theory" has a different meaning in mathematics than in science.