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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: koan who wrote (216507)2/10/2013 1:08:37 AM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (1) of 542651
 
How would these ideas apply to Global Warming and The Science of it? <High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. ft.com

In his books Popper argued that the empirical truth cannot be known with absolute certainty. Even scientific laws can’t be verified beyond a shadow of a doubt: they can only be falsified by testing. One failed test is enough to falsify, but no amount of conforming instances is sufficient to verify. Scientific laws are hypothetical in character and their truth remains subject to testing. Ideologies which claim to be in possession of the ultimate truth are making a false claim; therefore, they can be imposed on society only by force. This applies to Communism, Fascism and National Socialism alike.
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If one test fails to confirm a theory, the theory is bung. Another theory needs to be developed. In fact, the "science" of Global Warming is imbued with Soros's reflexivity writ large, and is not actually science. It's part of reflexivity. As he pointed out, just as "social science" is not science, and "economic science" is not science, "The Science" is not actually science either. Global Warming 'science' is just observation. The theories are not falsifiable. Einstein said the same thing several decades sooner about his theories - any number of observations would not prove him right, it would take just one observation to prove his theory wrong.

Thanks for that interesting link to Soros's 2009 lecture on reflexivity [I did not hunt for the subsequent lecture he referred to].

Mqurice
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