Subject: quote from Bohr etc.

From: Eric Scerri <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 11:14:07 -0800

My all time favorite quote is actually from Niels Bohr, I think:
>
>  "Prediction is very difficult... especially about the future."

This is a quotation from the Danish humorist and cartoonist Robert
Storm Petersen, known as "Storm P". Niels Bohr was probably fond of
it!

http://www.rene.belso.dk/StormP1.html

Yours, Jens >--<

-----------------------------------

Actually there is a serious aspect to Bohr's statement.

As we all know prediction can be used in the sense of retro-diction 
or genuine prediction (ie about the future).  There is a large 
literature in philosophy of science about the relative virtue of 
these two form of 'prediction' and the extent to which they each 
influence the acceptance of scientific theories.

The periodic table, although not exactly a "theory" has been the 
subject of part of this debate.
Was the periodic table accepted by the scientific community because 
of its dramatic predictions (Ge, Ga, Sc) or because it explained what 
was already known (the accommodation of all or most of the other then 
known elements).  Turns out it is not as clear-cut as histories 
usually state.  Even in the classic case of the periodic table 
genuine prediction of the future was not necessarily the most 
important factor in the acceptance of the system.

I could provide references if anybody is interested.

eric scerri

-- 

Dr. Eric Scerri ,
UCLA,
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry,
607 Charles E. Young Drive East,
Los Angeles,  CA 90095-1569
USA

E-mail :   [email-masked]
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fax:  310 206 2061
Web Page:    http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/scerri/index.html

Editor  of  Foundations of Chemistry
http://www.wkap.nl/journalhome.htm/1386-4238

Also see International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry
http://www.georgetown.edu/earleyj/ISPC.html