Ah thanks for these! i have to get some sleep now, but these seem to be relevant posts, so i’ll try to read them tomorrow :) On the first scan, this topic overlaps with my reply below to Benito, and I disagree with idea that just because standards are hard to employ, it’s impossible to find them. My impression is that this confusion tends to stem from the confusion concerning two types of assessments of scientific hypotheses: assessment of their acceptability (how much is the theory confirmed in view of evidence?) and their promising character (how promising is this theory/hypothesis?). A problem (e.g. in scientific debates) appears when the criteria of the former assessment are (inadequately) applied to the latter. And as a result, it may seem as if there are no standards we can apply in the latter case.
Anyway, I’ll get back to this when I read these posts in more detail.
Related: Projects, People and Processes.
Ah thanks for these! i have to get some sleep now, but these seem to be relevant posts, so i’ll try to read them tomorrow :) On the first scan, this topic overlaps with my reply below to Benito, and I disagree with idea that just because standards are hard to employ, it’s impossible to find them. My impression is that this confusion tends to stem from the confusion concerning two types of assessments of scientific hypotheses: assessment of their acceptability (how much is the theory confirmed in view of evidence?) and their promising character (how promising is this theory/hypothesis?). A problem (e.g. in scientific debates) appears when the criteria of the former assessment are (inadequately) applied to the latter. And as a result, it may seem as if there are no standards we can apply in the latter case.
Anyway, I’ll get back to this when I read these posts in more detail.