(October 10, 2016 at 2:46 am)robvalue Wrote: Can you give any specific examples of how the supposed mistreatment of anecdotes is affecting scientific research? I assume you're talking about science at large and not just discussion on forums with people producing anecdotes.
I said an anecdote is untestable because it is simply an account. I can't jump into the account and replay the event. I just have the words to go by. If the account suggests something which I can go ahead and test quite easily, then I would simply do so. And it would be the test that is the evidence, not the anecdote. I'd like to see an example of what you think is a testable anecdote. Everything in the account has gone through the filter of the story teller. I can't test their account, even if I could test the events involved. If they present it in a testable form, it's a hypothesis.
I'm not ignoring parts of your posts, I honestly find them extremely hard to respond to. I don't know where to begin. So I'm trying to focus on important points I feel can be further discussed.
I'm not aware of any issue in the context of scientific research, and that is not normally where I find that it is brought up here. I have said from the beginning, that I agree with the examples and the reasons given if you look it up (in the context of science). A common example would be a correlation made, from anecdotes in regards to a medical claim of causation.
Do you think, that in order for us to gain knowledge about something, that it needs to fit within the category of science?
