Witchcraft, was Re: Miklausen's 1997 book

[Curtis Clark]

At 08:13 AM 8/24/99 -0400, John Grehan wrote:
>So I'm not saying witchcraft is science, just pointing out to those who
>invoke
>falsification as the criterion for science that the criterion is not
>sufficient -

I never said it was sufficient. I do maintain that it is necessary.

Lateral transfer can be used to explain any distribution of traits--even
traits that follow a pattern that could be explained by descent. Thus it is
a "non-explanation". That doesn't mean that it can't happen, and says
nothing about its importance; rather, it cannot be a key piece of any
"methodology" (to use your word, perhaps correctly :-).


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Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
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