Friday, August 10, 2012

What is a fact?

This is a wonderfully articulated definition:

"In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms." 

-- Stephen Jay Gould

US author, naturalist, paleontologist, & popularizer of science (1941 - 2002)
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