30 ideas
21110 | An understanding of the most basic physics should explain all of the subject's mysteries [Krauss] |
21105 | In 1676 it was discovered that water is teeming with life [Krauss] |
3016 | Even the gods cannot strive against necessity [Pittacus, by Diog. Laertius] |
13047 | It is knowing 'why' that gives scientific understanding, not knowing 'that' [Salmon] |
13065 | Understanding is an extremely vague concept [Salmon] |
13054 | Correlations can provide predictions, but only causes can give explanations [Salmon] |
13067 | For the instrumentalists there are no scientific explanations [Salmon] |
13055 | Good induction needs 'total evidence' - the absence at the time of any undermining evidence [Salmon] |
13046 | Scientific explanation is not reducing the unfamiliar to the familiar [Salmon] |
13058 | Why-questions can seek evidence as well as explanation [Salmon] |
13064 | The three basic conceptions of scientific explanation are modal, epistemic, and ontic [Salmon] |
13050 | The 'inferential' conception is that all scientific explanations are arguments [Salmon] |
13059 | Ontic explanations can be facts, or reports of facts [Salmon] |
13049 | We must distinguish true laws because they (unlike accidental generalizations) explain things [Salmon] |
13051 | Deductive-nomological explanations will predict, and their predictions will explain [Salmon] |
13053 | A law is not enough for explanation - we need information about what makes a difference [Salmon] |
13061 | Flagpoles explain shadows, and not vice versa, because of temporal ordering [Salmon] |
13045 | Explanation at the quantum level will probably be by entirely new mechanisms [Salmon] |
13062 | Does an item have a function the first time it occurs? [Salmon] |
13063 | Explanations reveal the mechanisms which produce the facts [Salmon] |
13060 | Can events whose probabilities are low be explained? [Salmon] |
13056 | Statistical explanation needs relevance, not high probability [Salmon] |
13057 | Think of probabilities in terms of propensities rather than frequencies [Salmon] |
21109 | Space itself can expand (and separate its contents) at faster than light speeds [Krauss] |
21104 | General Relativity: the density of energy and matter determines curvature and gravity [Krauss] |
21107 | Uncertainty says that energy can be very high over very short time periods [Krauss] |
21106 | Most of the mass of a proton is the energy in virtual particles (rather than the quarks) [Krauss] |
21112 | Empty space contains a continual flux of brief virtual particles [Krauss] |
21108 | The universe is precisely 13.72 billion years old [Krauss] |
21111 | It seems likely that cosmic inflation is eternal, and this would make a multiverse inevitable [Krauss] |