Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 185.
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        Date: 2025-10-25 17:47:15+00:00
        From: James Rovira <jamesrovira@gmail.com>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.182: theory and fashionable dogma

Has anyone defined "theory" yet? My working definition is that a theory is
an unobservable explanation of or the positing of a cause of observable
phenomena: e.g., the Big Bang theory, the theory of evolution, Freud's
theory of the mind, etc. By this definition, experience always comes first.
No theory exists prior to experience. Reflection on or development of the
theory, therefore, is only as valid as knowledge of the experience. The
more data points the theory covers, the more valid the theory, but you need
many data points before you can begin to develop the theory or really
consider it. Everyone can and will always have an opinion, of course, but I
think this way of thinking gives us some criteria by which we can evaluate
those opinions.

Jim R


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