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  3. How did I come up with the theory I did?

How did I come up with the theory I did?

Mar 7, 2011 Balagangadhara , criticism hipkapi

What does it matter where they came from and how? Newton did not travel through the Cosmos and visit planets in order to formulate his theories of planetary motion. That guy did not even visit India to find out whether the naked fakirs levitate or not. With the proverbial falling of the apple on his head (this story is too beautiful to let go!), Sir Isaac made claims about gravitation and flatly claimed (as an implication) that the equally proverbial fakir could not levitate! Einstein was sitting in a tram, watching a car go by and feeling quite frustrated, when he came up with the theory of special relativity. Surely, while such anecdotes are quite interesting in their own right, we do not claim that the theories of Newton and Einstein are not worthy of consideration because of how they came into existence. The theory of double helix occurred literally in a dream; would we therefore dismiss it by saying that Watson dreamt the whole thing and that it was his personal nightmare?

Surely, the more interesting question for us is to find out whether it is possible to submit my object-level claims to the same kind of tests (in a suitably broad sense of the term) that other scientific theories are subjected to? In my reply to Maria, I have already indicated what would falsify my claim. And that brings me to your next point.

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