Re: The Unknown and the Unknowable

[maury <maury@webtexas.com>]

You have done a beautiful job of presenting an excellent concept paper

applicable to two seemingly unrelated topics. Your distinction: "The

trick is to distinguish the unknown from the unknowable ...." seems so

obvious after you have stated it. Yet the distinction is commonly

overlooked if not deliberately ignored!



Thanks for yanking the reality chain,

Maury     maury@webtexas.com

_______

PP=PPP

===============================

Jerry Cohen wrote:



>      There are similarities between two seemingly unrelated issues

> currently under discussion. These are the LNT hypothesis, and global

> climate change.    Both involve scientific vs.

> morality/ethics/religion considerations as encompassed in the

> "precautionary principal". A perhaps more important similarity is the

> fact that both involve factors that are not only unknown, but

> unknowable. Science thrives on resolving uncertainties and bringing

> previously unknown facts to light, but we cannot do much with the

> unknowable. To trick is to distinguish the unknown from the unknowable

> so that resources are not wasted trying to gain an understanding of

> things inevitably beyond our comprehension.    We know, for example,

> that the planet has existed and major climate changes  have occurred

> for millions of years---well before humans came on the scene. The

> earth has experienced

> -----------  snipped  -------------------



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