Explanations just don’t have the same logical form as a predictions.
I never once even hinted at a claim that they did.
I said that an explanation is “only as good as its predictive power.” I never once mentioned anything about there being symmetry between explanations and predictions—my statements were entirely unilateral.
Explannations that lack predictive power are not useful. I could explain that the Gods of Ysgard cause storms by going bowling in the clouds after getting drunk. You can’t make any useful predictions from this but it’s a perfectly simple explanation, far simpler and comprehensive than any actually useful explanation of thunderstorms. We throw it out precisely because it is so useless.
Experimentation replaces prediction as the central activity of science
Sir, experimentation without prediction is impossible. Experimentation is meant to falsify predictions in order to validate hypothesis into theoretical models.
I do not at all disagree that beliefs should pay rent.
Then you shouldn’t argue against it.
I am simply not comfortable saying that the metric by which the mysteriousness of an explanation is judged should be predictive power because predictive power is not the same as explanatory power.
Explanations are not predictions, this is true, but nobody was claiming that they were except you. Regardless, no explanation is any more valuable than its predictive power.
I never once even hinted at a claim that they did.
I said that an explanation is “only as good as its predictive power.” I never once mentioned anything about there being symmetry between explanations and predictions—my statements were entirely unilateral.
Explannations that lack predictive power are not useful. I could explain that the Gods of Ysgard cause storms by going bowling in the clouds after getting drunk. You can’t make any useful predictions from this but it’s a perfectly simple explanation, far simpler and comprehensive than any actually useful explanation of thunderstorms. We throw it out precisely because it is so useless.
Sir, experimentation without prediction is impossible. Experimentation is meant to falsify predictions in order to validate hypothesis into theoretical models.
Then you shouldn’t argue against it.
Explanations are not predictions, this is true, but nobody was claiming that they were except you. Regardless, no explanation is any more valuable than its predictive power.