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From: karl@plato.simons-rock.edu (Karl A. Krueger)
Subject: Re: See me, hear me, feel me, touch me.
Message-ID: <D8ICt4.Fop@plato.simons-rock.edu>
Reply-To: karl@simons-rock.edu
Organization: Disorganization
References: <3n651q$qro@ds2.acs.ucalgary.ca> <9505010008.AA001en@abarnett.demon.co.uk> <D7z1up.G5u@jack.sns.com> <3oqroj$o5f@serveur.cribx1.u-bordeaux.fr>
Date: Sat, 13 May 1995 08:27:04 GMT
Lines: 19

In article <3oqroj$o5f@serveur.cribx1.u-bordeaux.fr>,
 <linfo001@univ-pau.fr> wrote:
>OK. Let's push this reasoning a little further... Can we see ANYTHING? I
>mean... As long as we define magnetism as 'the thing that make the iron nail
>jump to the magnet' and as long as we can find magnetism's properties,
>there's no sense in trying to prove that there is magnetism... As a French I
>would say that "Une definition operatoire est suffisante.", but I do not
>know how to translate "definition operatoire". Guess you'll need your
>dictionary if you think what I say is of some interest...

Try "working definition".  Also known as "a real good guess that looks like
it works, and I've never seen anything big that says it doesn't."

Science is the development of better and better working definitions.  It
doesn't matter if a "magnetism" *looks like* what I think a "magnetism"
looks like; what matters is that when I poke it, it does what I think a
"magnetism" does.

Same with just about anything else.
