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From: Cathy Reason <Cathym.nul> Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:38:24 +0100 Archived: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:43:06 -0400 Subject: Re: Ufology And Psychiatry - Summary >From: Eugene Frison <cthulhu_calls.nul> >To: <post.nul> >Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:45:04 -0500 >Subject: Re: Ufology And Psychiatry - Summary <snip> >The research that is conducted in psychology is done according >to the standards of the scientific method, using either >qualitative or quantitative methods or both. It makes extensive >use of induction, deduction, and abduction (the three modes of >inference). It uses controlled experimentation in laboratories, >observation in natural settings, computational modelling, and >neuropsychological methods to name but a few. Evidently your notion of the scientific method is something that depends on a lot of complicated procedures and elaborate constructions of logic. To me this involves a serious misunderstanding about what science actually is - and unlike you, I don't think all this is just a matter of opinion. The cornerstone of science is: You develop hypotheses and then you test them. Without this, your elaborate methodological rituals are no better than alchemy, and your reverence for logic is just the modern equivalent of Medieval rationalism. The sort of methodolatry which is prevalent in the social sciences calls to mind the state of astronomy before the time of Johannes Kepler. Astronomy was considered in the Middle Ages to be one of the liberal arts - something which could be understood entirely in terms of logic and esthetics. The modern notion of astronomy as an empirical science would have been quite alien to the medieval mind. It was originally alien to the mind of Kepler, whose eventual abandonment of Medieval rationalism and conversion to modern scientific empiricism can be regarded as the beginning of astronomy as a true science. Cathy Listen to 'Strange Days... Indeed' - The PodCast At: http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/sdi/program/ These contents above are copyright of the author and UFO UpDates - Toronto. They may not be reproduced without the express permission of both parties and are intended for educational use only.
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