Not just in Kansas, Anymore....

[John R. Grehan]

>It seems like that would be true of any research program. "By their works
>you shall know them," but it's difficult to see how one would falsify
>methodology. Even the most sh*t-awful protocol can result in useful
>information, and an impeccable method applied to the wrong question can
>result in nothing.
>--
>Curtis Clark


I agree. Looking at evolution as a research program changes the context of
the debate as it is now more about what procedural activities take place in
consequence of adopting the research program, and what is the result. It is
my contention that some evolutionary methodology has resulted in
information that is not only 'useful' but novel in that it anticipated
future empirical discovery. This type of productivity is verifiable against
experience rather than involving philosophical debate. Whether or not
evolution is true or not in the greater scheme of reality (whatever that
is), as a scientific methodology, it works (and by 'it' I am referring to
the research program as a whole - some component research I would not
regard much higher than creationism).

John Grehan


John Grehan
Frost Entomological Museum
Pennsylvania State University
Department of Entomology
501 ASI Building
University Park, PA 16802. USA.

Phone: (814) 863-2865
Fax: (814) 865-3048

Frost Museum
http://www.ento.psu.edu/home/Frost/index.html