[OPE-L:5610] Re: Ockam's Razor

["Gerald_A_Levy" <Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Re Paul C's [5607]:

Paul previously offered the following quote
for our consideration:

> I often say that when you can measure what you > are speaking about and
express  it in numbers,
> you know something about it; but  when you
> cannot measure it,  when you cannot express it
> in numbers, your  knowledge is of a meager
> and  unsatisfactory kind."   (Kelvin)

I responded, in part, by asking:

>  Is our knowledge about psychology,
>  anthropology, history, etc. of a meager  and
>  unsatisfactory kind?

Paul's answer:

> Clearly so.

Most scientists, though, would readily admit
that our knowledge of the universe is also of a
meager and unsatisfactory kind.  Thus, it could
be said that the entire accumulated wisdom of
our species is of a meager and unsatisfactory
kind.

> As far as I am aware there is as yet no serious
> quantitative work on revolutionary history.

And with good reason!

> And the
> current status of revolutionary theory is a joke.
> It is certainly knowledge of a most unsatisfactory
> kind.

Well ... one hopes that we have learned something
from working class and revolutionary history.
This is most certainly not 'a joke' from the
standpoint of the working class for whom an
ability to grasp some of the lessons of history
can mean the difference between success and
failure and life and death.

In solidarity, Jerry