{Hawking [(1)][continued (8)]}[19th July 1988]

[Redbook5:216][19880719:0000h]{Hawking [(1)][continued (8)]}[19th July 1988]

(19880719. )

[continued]

I believe it may be possible to adapt here* the counter to the Argument from Design, [(]which basically says the World is just right for us, so that is evidence for a Designer[)]; the counter[-argument]** says it is just right for us because we are just right for it, in it, part of it; had it not been right for us, we should not be here, so our suitability is no argument. Similarly, when it is argued that Science has been proved right in many cases by practical application – e.g. that Quantum Mechanics is the basis of modern electronics, chemistry and biology – one might reply that the uses to which it has been put are no evidence for its exclusive correctness in those applications, since we do not know what further practical applications might have arisen out of a better theory.

*[See last two previous entries]

**(The Anthropic Principle, as it turns out: I've just reached [[Stephen Hawking, 'A Brief history of Time', Bantam, 1988]] p124.)

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