APPARENTLY IT’S HARD TO SEPARATE RATIONALISM FROM SCIENCE. Rationalism provides

APPARENTLY IT’S HARD TO SEPARATE RATIONALISM FROM SCIENCE.

Rationalism provides a limited subset of tools with which we can conduct test(criticisms) and construct ideas (hypotheses) within the discipline of constructing Truthful Testimony (science).

I understand that imagining and exploring ideas via rationalism is desirable because it requires less knowledge than full criticism sufficient for testimony.

But rationalism (internal consistency) provides only a child( subset) of truth telling (science) not the parent(determinant) of it.

GATHERING, STUDYING, RESEARCHING, “FILLING THE SHELVES OF THE MIND”

Collecting general knowledge about a subject so that you have conceptual resources with which to experiment.

OBSERVATION: Just what it says. You observe and remember (record) something with sufficient instrumentation that you can compare it to future observations.

FACT: An observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as “true.” Truth however, is never final and what is accepted as a fact today may be modified or even discarded tomorrow. In other words an observation that has survived all known criticism.

FREE ASSOCIATION: Imagining through free association by any means possible from the most rigorous use of mathematics through daydreaming, using the conceptual resources available to you to experiment with.

HYPOTHESIS : A tentative statement about the natural world leading to deductions that can be tested. Hypotheses can be used to build more complex inferences and explanations. In other words: informed guesses.

THEORY: A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses. In other words, an hypothesis that has survived scrutiny.

LAW : A descriptive generalization about how some aspect of the natural world behaves under stated circumstances. In other words a theory that has survived all known criticism.