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The moon is not self-luminous. Does that help? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That depends on whether you are considered an intermediary or not. If I get a tax rebate cheque (check) by mail, I don't thank the postman for his generosity.

ALthough it has properties 'inherited' from the sun...

Recent global temperature figures suggest some unexpected tipping point has been passed. I've heard that some forests are near becoming or have become net emitters of CO₂ thawing permafrost is releasing rapidly increasing quantities of CH₄ (methane), and volcanic activity plays a role, but I...

Not by common definitions of theory and belief. You can believe that a theory is the best available or current explanation without believing the theory. Living with uncertainty is part of what makes a good scientist

Not exactly. Further research may lead to a discovery that falsifies the theory, or may show how the theory explains the hitherto unexplained. Einstein's theory of General Relativity is still being researched and tested - the idea is to see if it fails somewhere and so get a clue to a deeper...

So what do you think they mean by it? Is it what you mean when you use it? If you're not prepared to explain what you mean by the terms you use, some people might assume you don't know what they mean.

The criteria for a scientific theory and scientific validity have changed over time. If you buy a train ticket for a journey today, it is considered valid for a journey today, but it may not be considered valid for a journey tomorrow. You might also find that what you thought was a valid ticket...

That's not a well-defined question until you define what you mean by 'valid' in this context. If it satisfies the criteria for a scientific theory, does this make it a 'valid' scientific theory? If a seat is something you can sit on, and you find something you can sit on, is it a 'valid'...

Thank you - I may just be visiting, I'm not sure how much time I'll have. The last course I mentioned on here was the Philosophy of Mind course, which was very interesting - the topics involved Cartesian dualism; the problem of other minds; Behaviourism; Materialism and Functionalism...

Yes, it was apparently taken as '(proto)scientific' fact even before the Ancient Greeks. Although a form of hypothesis testing was established in Socratic times, some such 'facts' survived unscathed even through the scientific revolution of the 16th century. We tend to overlook things that have...

Correct. Mike Tyson was the heavyweight boxing champion. He isn't now. Spontaneous generation was a scientific theory. It isn't now - as I said. Don't wear out your spade.

More a lack of attention and/or effort ;-)

Don't forget the Law of Holes ;)

If you'd read what it said about spontaneous generation, you'd have seen that the second sentence says it was, "Falsified by an experiment by Louis Pasteur". You may recall what I said about a scientific theory in #56: "If we confirm ... that it doesn't correspond with how the observable...

It's not a scientific theory. It's not even a plausible hypothesis given current knowledge.

That's sometimes true in practice - scientists are human too. But a scientific theory is generally accepted as the best explanation we currently have, and the excitement aroused by the possibility of a new discovery overturning an existing theory contradicts the idea that it's a belief.

Perhaps ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sounds like the complement to phenomenology in philosophy...