(March 14, 2010 at 6:25 pm)Frank Wrote: Would we say chemists only approximately know how to make plastic, or do they simply know how to make plastic?
Your objection would work if I said that science approximates things. But I didn't. Science informs us with a very high degree of probability how and why making plastic works. Is that knowledge certain? No. But the probability that our knowledge is correct leans very close to 1 (but does not reach 1, where certainty lies).
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when
called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
(Oscar Wilde)
called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
(Oscar Wilde)