Art or science? | IMDB v2.1

Art or science? Jun 5, 2020 13:15:51 GMT

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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Jun 5, 2020 13:15:51 GMT

Jun 5, 2020 8:10:20 GMT gameboy said:

Jun 5, 2020 6:46:19 GMT Eva Yojimbo said:

I think you're confusing pseudoscience with science. Pseudoscience can create systems and use technical-sounding terminology without ever subjecting itself to the kind of rigorous empirical testing that's necessary for something to qualify as genuine science, and that's precisely how astrology works. The fact that it utilizes some scientific facts, like planetary movement, in no way lends any scientific credence to the hypothesis that those movements affect people's personalities or futures.

It's almost Zen to force yourself to use an illogical frame of reference. That was my point.

I'm not confusing anything. I know astrology is bunk. We're only choosing between two options here. The Babylonians treated astrology as a science. You seem to be saying it's only science if it's correct. Many scientific theories even under current standards are proven wrong. Are they no longer science?

I have no idea what's "zen" about being illogical, but OK I guess.

The Babylonians were wrong, simple as that. Saying "X is science" when X has only ever been debunked by science (never supported) is a rather bizarre usage of the term, as generally the people who believe in astrology would only call it "science" if they think/believe science actually supports/proves it. All of our current theories have scientific support right now, meaning that they've been subject to rigorous empirical testing. If we manage to make some new discovery or discoveries that cast doubt on those theories and/or find another theory that is able to explain what the current theories cannot, then it's fine to still consider those debunked things science; but astrology never even had that initial rigorous empirical testing to begin with. Same as with something like phlogiston. It's not science if a hypothesis makes no unique predictions and if those predictions are never rigorously tested.