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To: antiRepublicrat

Actually astrology was widely regarded as science up to the 17th Century, Kepler was a court astrologer. The Church condemned it because the determinism that was part and parcel of it. What astrology does provide is a detailed description of the heavens. As a science it is a failed paradign, in part because once we moved beyond a terra-centric universe, the notion that we are influenced by the motions of the heavens fell by the wayside. It did not fit the new model of planetary and steller motions. I look at psychology as something similar, a quasi-science that is useful when limited to descriptions and personal counseling.


96 posted on 12/15/2010 11:29:08 AM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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To: RobbyS
Actually astrology was widely regarded as science up to the 17th Century,

Exactly, was. I hear alchemy was popular for a time too.

look at psychology as something similar, a quasi-science that is useful when limited to descriptions and personal counseling.

Many aspects of research psychology do use empirical scientific methods. In other cases they use surveys and other methods that make it more of a "soft science," mainly because people are so different and unpredictable. In any case it can return valuable information. Medicine's kind of like that in general, some science, some art.

99 posted on 12/15/2010 12:23:24 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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