Re: Darwin's Appendix

On Tue, 1 Sep 2009 14:53:58 +0000 (UTC), in
soc.culture.jewish.moderated , micha@xxxxxxxxxxx (Micha Berger) in
<h7jcge$q8t$4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Matt Silberstein <RemoveThisPrefixmatts2nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This means you don't understand how the Razor works. "God did it" is
not simpler because it predicts nothing. Let us take an example of 100
rocks being tossed off a cliff. I can us a single formula to predict
the path of each of them. But with "God did it" I have to make a
different assertion each time, a different "entity" by the notion of
the Razor. From the POV of science, from the question of how the world
we observe works, "it was designed" is infinitely complex because you
need a different "designer" for each "it".

You're conflating two questions.

Nope. Assertion of a Designer as above is a claim about some material
effort, some action in the world. If you are not talking about that

Science finds a pattern to how rocks fall off cliffs.

Why does that pattern exist? Is it causeless, in which case we need to
explain where order emerged from chaos? Or is it intentional -- in which
case we posit G-d? Or...

Even if you posit a designer you still have to explain the pattern. If
I explain the pattern I don't have to also explain the designer.

In each case, though, the questions of the pattern's existence and
content is different than explaining why the pattern is there at all.

We were talking about the Razor. I can explain the existence and
content of the pattern and put it in a context of explanation of the
rest of observation without having to then assert some particular
answer as to why (Telos why, purpose why) the stuff exists. The Razor
slices out that unnecessary issue.

William of Ockham did not invent parsimony, what we call the Razor.
But he used it for a critical purpose: he sliced apart theology from
philosophy. He was a believing (if heretical and excommunicated)
Catholic, but he saw the issues of theology as distinct from the
issues of philosophy. For the discussion of the things in the world it
is not simply to assert that the "Designer" did it, it is "simpler" to
leave the whole question of Designers and final cause and purpose and
all that out of the discussion. In cleaving philosophy from theology
Ockham made Natural Philosophy possible and so science.

(Simpler is really a terrible view of the Razor. Translated into
modern understandable English the Razor says "Don't make assumptions"
or "remove all unnecessary assumptions". If "and God did it" adds
nothing to the conclusion, then leave it out of the argument. Does not
mean God didn't do it, it means the assertion is unnecessary for the
argument. This was powerfully important for Western ideas. There are
some today in the O community who reject this idea.)

--
Matt Silberstein

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