tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post110739043507381676..comments2023-10-06T12:08:56.879-04:00Comments on 3W: Science and ErrorZevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-1107931509781500052005-02-09T01:45:00.000-05:002005-02-09T01:45:00.000-05:00cf. karl poppercf. karl popperErnest Scribblerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10777552150370081647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-1107728580934933012005-02-06T17:23:00.000-05:002005-02-06T17:23:00.000-05:00saying "Statistics accounts for it" is meaningless...saying "Statistics accounts for it" is meaningless, i think. statistics exists because the world produces irregular results. it may be interesting that their irregularity follows predictable patterns, but the variation is still fundamentally unexplained. so it's not that science is limited by statistics. science is made posible only be the statistical pretense that if something can be accurately described/predicted it has been satisfactorily explained. <br />really, i tend to take the a priori position, that every theory explains some things and not others - that's just life. from a religious (or philosophical?) perspective, the world has more than we can make of it, so we force it into various boxes that fit different elements and exclude others at different times. i don't believe there will ever be a final theory of everything. there may be a theory, but it will get tweaked and modified, because we are mortal and finite and all that. <br />what you are saying about "error" in social theory might mean, then, that when people's lives and such are at stake we like to be more careful and self-aware wrt the fact that our theories are necessarily limited. there's no real reason to assume that someone is deviant rather than that a model is flawed. of course we do, anyway, because we have to make decisions and policies and such, but we shouldn't do it without some anxiety.<br />i'm done now. make fun of me (constructively, please...) if you like.miriamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11896163171832646138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-1107412071303101792005-02-03T01:27:00.000-05:002005-02-03T01:27:00.000-05:00There was a sign on the wall of my Stat professor'...There was a sign on the wall of my Stat professor's office. It said, "Mathematicians and Statisticians have a relationship based on trust and undertsanding. The Mathematicians do not trust the Statisticians, and the Statisticians do not understand the Mathematicians."Yehudahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04472453413892018818noreply@blogger.com