Saturday 14 February 2015

NESFA Collections, Volume 2

I have just received this book (see image), published by NESFA Press, through the post. The long table of contents includes several familiar titles but also many unfamiliar. I am starting with a 1983 Analog article on "Science and Creation."

"Theory" is contrasted with "fact" but also with "practice." Theory guides practice; practice tests theory. If we describe evolution as a "theory," then scientific creationists reply that, in that case, it is "only a theory," not a proved "fact," to which I have heard evolutionists more recently respond that, in that case, evolution is a fact.

As long as we are clear about what we mean, it is less important which words we use. The words change their meanings in any case. Anderson summarizes the scientific paradigm, using the following words:

observations;
mathematical descriptions;
hypotheses;
predictions;
theories;
basic principles -

- and argues that evolution has advanced from theory to principle.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Just a quick, rather trivial note. One thing I noticed about the NESFA Press collections of Poul Anderson's short stories is how beautiful the covers commissioned for these volumes are. Too often, the covers of both hardbacks and soft covers simply don't match their contents. Three of the worse recent examples being the appalling covers for Baen Books YOUNG FLANDRY, CAPTAIN FLANDRY, and SIR DOMINIC FLANDRY. Those covers are so stunningly bad I have to restrain myself from going overboard in how I would describe them!

Sean