Understanding the Zetetic Method
« on: April 26, 2019, 06:40:41 PM »
I want to make sure I'm understanding and characterizing Zetetic thinking and methodology correctly.
Are these statements accurate?
  1) I cannot see the curvature of the earth, therefore the earth is flat.
  2) I cannot see the end(s) of the flat earth, therefore the earth is infinite.

If these are true, would it also follow that these statements are accurate?
  3) I cannot see across the ocean, therefore the ocean is infinite.
  4) I cannot see electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength of 1 mm known as infrared, therefore it does not exist.
  5) I cannot hear a longitudinal wave vibrating the air at 25kHz, therefore it does not exist.
  6) I cannot see my own cells, my DNA, therefore they do not exist.
  7) I cannot see atoms, protons, electrons and quarks, therefore they do not exist.

These all empirical first person observations relying on my own senses to discern the true nature of the world around me from which I had derived the simplest most straight forward conclusions.  I did not speculate or imbue biases on what the answer might be, before first testing them out. 

Please Zetetic council members, help me out here.  Do my conclusions make sense in light of Zetetic methodology?  Please explain one way or the other.  Thank you.

Offline Pinky

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Re: Understanding the Zetetic Method
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2019, 12:12:47 PM »
There is a TFES-wiki-page on zeteticism.

Zeteticism is a method of research related to the scientific method but fundamentally different from it.

In the scientific method, a biased researcher proposes an explanation, from that you derive a prediction, then you make the experiment to check whether the prediction matches reality. In the end, the proposed explanation is declared correct/incorrect based on whether or not the prediction matches to reality. The bias of the researcher becomes irrelevant, because the decision is made by the data.

In contrast, the zetetic does not propose an explanation or a prediction. In the zetetic method, the experiment gets conducted first. From the data, the biased researcher derives an explanation for what he has seen.

That is the difference between the scientific method and the zetetic method: The scientific method neutralizes the biases of the researcher, the zetetic method enhances them.

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Understanding the Zetetic Method
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2019, 01:13:53 PM »
Are these statements accurate?
  1) I cannot see the curvature of the earth, therefore the earth is flat.
  2) I cannot see the end(s) of the flat earth, therefore the earth is infinite.
No, neither of these statements is accurate.
Read the FAQ before asking your question - chances are we already addressed it.
Follow the Flat Earth Society on Twitter and Facebook!

If we are not speculating then we must assume

Re: Understanding the Zetetic Method
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2019, 01:43:31 PM »
1) Agree with Pete. Not being able to see the curvature of the Earth does not lead us to the conclusion that the Earth is flat.

2) You will never find any edges to the Earths surface because the surface area is finite but unbounded.

Offline iamcpc

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Re: Understanding the Zetetic Method
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2019, 03:26:22 PM »
Are these statements accurate?
  1) I cannot see the curvature of the earth, therefore the earth is flat.
  2) I cannot see the end(s) of the flat earth, therefore the earth is infinite.
No, neither of these statements is accurate.

I agree with Pete on this. It's been my experience that most people from the FE community don't deal in these absolutes. Granted there some that do saying things like "Anything that you can't see with the naked eye does not exist".


I've changed your original statements to better fit a majority of the FE community (based on my personal experience)



  1) I cannot see the curvature of the earth. Therefore more research should be done on that matter. This particular observation could be interpreted as evidence that the earth might not be curved.







Re: Understanding the Zetetic Method
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2019, 05:33:26 PM »
I've changed your original statements to better fit a majority of the FE community (based on my personal experience)
  1) I cannot see the curvature of the earth. Therefore more research should be done on that matter. This particular observation could be interpreted as evidence that the earth might not be curved.
I like this one, thank you for the reply.

Re: Understanding the Zetetic Method
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2019, 08:30:51 PM »
Quote
I cannot see the curvature of the earth. Therefore more research should be done on that matter. This particular observation could be interpreted as evidence that the earth might not be curved.

Yes it could be interpreted in that way.  You could also interpret that you can see a horizon as evidence for a curved surface.  You cannot see any curvature of the horizon until you are high enough to see a large enough proportion of the total surface area of the Earth from a single observation point.

Interpretation is a very individual thing and can be influenced by a number of factors. We might see what we expect to see, what we want to see or what we believe we have seen. Much the same as UFOs or ghosts for example. In contrast but equally true we often don't see what we don't expect to see.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2019, 09:53:13 AM by manicminer »