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Full Idea
Crucial to the scientific method is the ability to abstract out the subjective qualities that we give to things - such as beauty, meaning, purpose, and value - and focus only on the objective qualities of things, which can be measured and quantified.
Gist of Idea
Science has to abstract out the subjective attributes of things, focusing on what is objective
Source
Kevin Aho (Existentialism: an introduction [2014], 1 'Emergence')
Book Ref
Aho,Kevin: 'Existentialism: an introduction' [Polity 2014], p.5
A Reaction
This seems to me exactly right. People who deny the primary/secondary distinction, like Hume, are usually correspondingly pessimistic about science. And Hume was wrong about that.
Related Idea
Idea 5466 Primary qualities are number, figure, size, texture, motion, configuration, impenetrability and (?) mass [Ellis]
| 21950 | Science must clear away the idols of the mind if they are ever going to find the truth [Bacon] |
| 18971 | Theories are practical tools for progress, not answers to enigmas [James] |
| 5391 | Science aims to find uniformities to which (within the limits of experience) there are no exceptions [Russell] |
| 3856 | Good theories have empirical content, explain a lot, and are not falsified [Popper, by Newton-Smith] |
| 17508 | Science aims at truth, not at 'simplicity' [Putnam] |
| 12669 | Science aims to explain things, not just describe them [Ellis] |
| 15225 | Science investigates the nature and constitution of things or substances [Harré/Madden] |
| 15298 | We prefer the theory which explains and predicts the powers and capacities of particulars [Harré/Madden] |
| 14917 | To accept a scientific theory, we only need to believe that it is empirically adequate [Fraassen] |
| 19007 | A theory need not be true to be good; it should just be true about its physical aspects [Yablo] |
| 7026 | Science is sometimes said to classify powers, neglecting qualities [Heil] |
| 15207 | We want illuminating theories, rather than coherent theories [Le Poidevin] |
| 14988 | A theory which doesn't fit nature is unexplanatory, even if it is true [Sider] |
| 17488 | Empiricist theories are sets of laws, which give explanations and reductions [Glennan] |
| 20736 | Science has to abstract out the subjective attributes of things, focusing on what is objective [Aho] |