Questioning Theoretical Physics: A Skeptic's View

[ThomasMagnus]

I have become frustrated with modern theoretical physics as of late; because it seems to be slow on the validation of on different physical theories. Of course due to the nature of the field this is completely expected – with where we are today, it is extremely expensive and requires much human ingenuity in order to conduct experiments. Although my dissatisfaction seems to stem from the fact that many people seem to be claiming certain philosophical truths, due to these theoretical models. Such an example would be the denial of free will due to Everet’s many world interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. It seems to me that astrophysicists often seem to be subject to the temptation to feel an unwarranted feeling of pride in their own models, and to lack a sort of epistemological scepticism that should be there in the final analysis. In all honesty, I have decided to take most models created with a grain of salt until there is empirical evidence to warrant a belief in it. I mean, as far as I can tell from looking at the history of physics, it just takes one small piece of empirical evidence to throw a great number of cosmological models into the intellectual dumpster. This is the thing, it seems to me that we have a group of very bright people – the physics community thinking up complex cosmological models, that for the most part only exist in their heads. My position as of now is to obviously contemplate a certain physical model but not consider it worthy of support unless there is empirical evidence to support it.

Is anyone on my boat of scepticism, or a similar boat of scepticism? Anyone disagree?

 

[mathman]

I believe most physicists would agree with you, but without the cynicism you've expressed. Checking against the real world is fundamental to the acceptance of any physical theory.

 

[ThomasMagnus]

I believe most physicists would agree with you, but without the cynicism you've expressed. Checking against the real world is fundamental to the acceptance of any physical theory.

Well, my cynicism is a bit of emotion coming through my writing. Thanks for the response.