Mail*Link(r) SMTP FWD>RE>Phylogeny continued

Richard McCourt wrote:

-------------------------------------- Date: 28/07/1995 17:11 From: Richard McCourt It sounds like Warren Lamboy is saying that any phenomenon that occurs uniquely and didn't have witness cannot be studied scientifically, or at least not with statistics. But some folks calling themselves scientists spend a lot of time working on cosmology and evaluating evidence for and against various theories of the universe's origin. I think they even use statistics to evaluate their data and reconstruct history. How is phylogeny unrecoverable but other historical phenomena are?

Rick

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- And Warren Lamboy responds:

It may sound like that, but that is not what I was saying. I was referring to phylogeny reconstruction in particular; I did not generalize to anything else.

I am unfamiliar with the theory and practice of cosmology, for example, so am unqualified either to judge the results produced or, consequently, to answer your final question. Perhaps I would object as strongly to methods used in cosmology as I do to those used in phylogeny reconstruction.