r/philosophy • u/noncommutativehuman • 19d ago

Article [PDF] Physics Needs Philosophy. Philosophy Needs Physics | Carlo Rovelli

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.10602
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u/spencabt 19d ago

 This is the current “why not?” ideology: any new idea deserves to be studied, just because it has not yet been falsified; any idea is equally probable, because a step further ahead on the knowledge trail there may be a Kuhnian discontinuity that was not predictable on the basis of past knowledge; any experiment is equally interesting, provided it tests something as yet untested. I think that this methodological philosophy has given rise to mountains of useless theoretical work in physics and many useless experimental investments.

This is not how modern science and funding work. You must make a case, labs don't get funding for random ideas. 

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u/Polo0o 18d ago

I would guess Carlo Rovelli has some knowledge on how science is fund, you know, given his work and experience...

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u/spencabt 18d ago edited 18d ago

So random ideas ARE funded? Without requiring a case to be made for their viability?

Either he needed to make that statement a bit less exaggerated or there's something about the statement that could have been clearer, but on the whole it doesn't pass muster.