I claim that the success of current scientific theories is no miracle. It is not even surprising to the scientific (Darwinist) mind. For any scientific theory is born into a life of fierce competition, a jungle red in tooth and claw. Only the successful theories survive — the ones which in fact latched on to actual regularities in nature.
Indeed he did—but the two quotes were in the same comment until after I posted my request. That’s why there’s an asterisk after the timestamp on the original quote post—the comment was edited to remove the Bas van Fraassen quote.
There is no dominant conceptual analysis of ‘miracle’ such that Putnam’s sentence has a clear and distinct meaning. (I may be incorrect about this; I do not follow Philosophy of Religion.) Of course, since Putnam was writing to an extremely secular audience (by American standards), ‘miracle’ is a useful slur that essentially translates to ‘WTF is this I don’t even’.
-Hilary Putnam
-Bas van Fraassen
One quote per post, please.
Edit: Belated thanks!
I’m assuming Jayson_Virissimo felt they were strongly related.
Indeed he did—but the two quotes were in the same comment until after I posted my request. That’s why there’s an asterisk after the timestamp on the original quote post—the comment was edited to remove the Bas van Fraassen quote.
Ah, my apologies. That’s what I get for reading the thread 11 days late. :-)
And that’s what I get for not editing my comment to say, “Edit: Thanks!”
Speaking of which....
The second quote is responding to the claim in the first quote. It is a pseudo-conversation.
Putnam of all people really should have known better than to use the word ‘miracle’.
How do you figure??
There is no dominant conceptual analysis of ‘miracle’ such that Putnam’s sentence has a clear and distinct meaning. (I may be incorrect about this; I do not follow Philosophy of Religion.) Of course, since Putnam was writing to an extremely secular audience (by American standards), ‘miracle’ is a useful slur that essentially translates to ‘WTF is this I don’t even’.