On 12/28/2015 03:56 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
“observational-ist”?!!!!  Whazzat?

I tend to think of "Doubting Thomas".  I associate it with a more specific 
version of empiricism, which can take either of 2 basic forms: 1) that all thought has to 
be grounded _immediately_ in observation or 2) that all thought has to be grounded 
_eventually_ in observation.  Observationalists are more DIY scientists ... they expect 
to be able to perform the tests themselves rather than allowing the knowledge to accrete 
over time.  They tend to distrust experiments that, for example, require something like 
the hadron collider to perform ... that is, unless they happen to have their own access 
to an accelerator... then they can still be relatively observationalist yet trust the 
results from CERN.

At least that's they way _I_ use the term.  I'm happy to be corrected.

--
⇔ glen

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