Nelson Goodman on Simplicity & Truth in Science (1963)

A clip of Nelson Goodman from a 1963 lecture on simplicity and science. The lecture was one in a series of 17 lectures given on the philosophy of science from Voice of America’s “Forum: The Arts & Sciences in Mid-Century America”. The series includes Willard Van Orman Quine, Ernest Nagel, Carl Hempel, Max Black, Hilary Putnam, Paul Feyerabend, Sidney Morgenbesser, Patrick Suppes, and others.
#Philosophy #Epistemology #Science

[@indivisible4835]

Thank you. These notes leave me wanting to hear the whole Symphony, Bravo to your work!

[@Tymbus]

I was pleased to hear Goodman talking, having read some of his work. Also amazing that space was given for talks on the philosophy of science.

[@attackdog6824]

More please

[@Eta_Carinae__]

I'm quite sure that Fisher and those others that developed the modern statistical techniques did so with realist prejudices. Whenever we fit a curve, we assume a true parameter to fit to, and a real noise term, which is mostly Gaussian i. i. d., so it corresponds to a sum of unique random variables. I think Goodman here implies statistical statements are only about epistemic statements, but he doesn't present an alternative to the requisite realism imposed by statistical theory that can give the same results.

[@Gabriel-pt3ci]

Thank you very much, @Philosophy Overdose! I ask you kindly if you could post the whole lecture. It seems promising! On a general note, I would appreciate if you happen to have some other stuff from him, Hempel and Carnap...

[@syedadeelhussain2691]

it's important to listen to this. Most of the biostatisticians and epidemiologists were using the wrong models during covid pandemic and hence their forecasting did not show the right estimates in reality. An e.g. was the SIR (Suspected-Infected-Recovered) Model and its many variants.

[@Vingul]

What sort of accent did this man have? Reminds me of East Coast/New York but the way he says «curves» and «surface» sounds English somehow. I don’t suppose intellectuals adopted the mid-Atlantic accent in them days? Edit: apparently he was from Massachusetts, yet I have never heard someone with quite this accent before.