On Nov 22, 2010, at 10:00 PM, Spruiell, William C wrote:
> (a) being able to predict something that hasn't been observed before and then later determining whether the prediction's right or not, and
> (b) being able to say that new examples of the same kind of thing we already know about act the way we think they should. 

>  If type A is the equivalent of making Beef Wellington, type B is microwaving some tater tots. 

I don't see why you are ranking these different types of knowledge.  We need both; each has its place, and to me both are Beef Wellington.  When I say grammar is not a science, all you can hear is me accusing you of pushing tater tots.  Yikes, no wonder I've met with such resistance.

>  Saussure's reconstruction of a laryngeal fricative for PIE

Great example.  He was using good reasoning skills, but I would not call him a scientist: he was not studying the natural world, his discovery was not fruitful, it didn't open up new areas of study, or  "help explain and predict the most diverse phenomena" (Schick and Vaughn).  Let's say he used the same methods to determine that a primitive culture worshipped a particular type of god.  If unknown documents were then discovered to reveal that this culture did indeed worship this god, does this make him a scientist?  No, he is a really good anthropologist.  Same argument goes for all the other social scientists, including economics, history, political science, psychology, and sociology.

> If you're expecting a physicist-style model, the linguist-style one might be annoying. 

I agree.  And vise versa.  Physicists and grammarian/linguist are dealing with different types of knowledge and different ways of knowing that knowledge.  We need words to differentiate this different kind of knowledge.  Why do you want to merge them?  You sure you want to call yourself an iffy-scientist or tater-tot teacher?

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