Re: [Marxism] International Socialist Review on Pharmaceutical

[Shane Mage <shmage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Apr 26, 2009, at 2:23 PM, Jeff wrote:

> At 13:35 26/04/09 -0400, you wrote:
>>
>> On Apr 26, 2009, at 12:18 PM, Jeff wrote:
>>
>>> ...
>>> By casually referring to "statistical rigamarole", it appears you
>>> have no
>>> idea how science is done. Almost every scientific result RELIES on
>>> statistics, an essential part of scientific methodology.
>>
>> When, by this weird conception of science, was the first time--day,
>> month, year, please--
>> when human beings first did anything that Jeff would recognize as
>> "science?"
>
> It's almost not worth answering such a question but since you caught  
> me at
> the keyboard and not in a good mood, I'll bite the bait. No, I do  
> not know
> the very first time, but what you are surely getting at is whether  
> there
> was science before the development of probability and statistics (a  
> branch
> of math). Of course the answer is yes...

Which is to admit that statistically controlled double-blind  
experiment, far from being "an *essential* part of scientific  
methodology," is merely one, very recent and very limited, of the  
techniques available in the practical human enterprise known as science.
> As we know from folklore, an apple
> fell on Isaac Newton's head...his conclusion[:]...there is a law  
> causing objects normally to fall toward the center of the earth."
>
That's Aristotle, sans pomme aucune, not Newton.
Newton's contribution is that planets fall toward the center of the sun.
A conclusion available to neither the controlled-experiment  
"scientist"  nor the appleheaded empiricist.

Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu