Re: The ID ONLY Hypothesis


"Seanpit" <seanpitnospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

Do you really think you can prove otherwise?

There you go again, arguing _ad ignorantiam_, which is logical fallacy for
which you are famous, as Copi explains:

<quote>
Famous in the history of science is the argument _ad ignorantiam_ given in
criticism of Galileo, when he showed leading astronomers of his time the
mountains and valleys on the moon that could be seen through his telescope.
Some scholars of that age, absolutely convinced that the moon was a perfect
sphere, as theology and Aristotelian science had long taught, argued against
Galileo that, although we see what appear to be mountains and valleys, the
moon is in fact a perfect sphere, because all its apparent irregularities
are filled in by an invisible crystalline substance. And this hypothesis,
which saves the perfection of the heavenly bodies, Galileo could not prove
false!

Galileo, to expose the argument _ad ignorantium_, offered another of the
same kind as a caricature. Unable to prove the nonexistence of the
transparent crystal supposedly filling the valleys, he put forward the
equally probable hypothesis that there were, rearing up from the invisible
crystalline envelope on the moon, even greater mountain peaks -- but made
of crystal and thus invisible! And this hypothesis his critics could not
prove false.
</quote>
(Copi and Cohen, _Introduction to Logic_)

[In this case the term, 'hypothesis' means conjecture, a speculative, 'might
be' imagining with no basis in fact.]



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The ID ONLY Hypothesis
    ... mountains and valleys on the moon that could be seen through his telescope. ... Galileo that, although we see what appear to be mountains and valleys, the ... are filled in by an invisible crystalline substance. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Physics and metaphysics
    ... Your argument _ad ignorantiam_ for God is that there might be a magic ... invisible God anyway, even though you cannot produce any logically ... criticism of Galileo, when he showed leading astronomers of his time the ... mountains and valleys on the moon that could be seen through his telescope. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Physics and metaphysics
    ... Your argument _ad ignorantiam_ for God is that there might be a magic ... criticism of Galileo, when he showed leading astronomers of his time the ... mountains and valleys on the moon that could be seen through his telescope. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Physics and metaphysics
    ... You are arguing _ad ignorantiam_ that your ad hoc hypothetically ... invisible God is an hypothesis even a genius like Galileo could not prove ... Then you try to shift the burden of proof to the non-believers by arguing ...
    (sci.physics)