Re: Whence the notion of unending science?

"John Wilkins" <j.wilkins1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1inp1ke.1drbh71suirizN%j.wilkins1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Ken Miner <miner@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> In nearly every popular account of science and the scientific method,
we
>> are
>> told that "we will never understand everything". My question is simply,
>> why
>> do we say that? Complete knowledge does not seem to violate any logical
>> principle; etc.
>>
>> I have put this question to scientists many times; the only actual
answer
>> I
>> have ever received is that we know that past science was always wrong
in
>> various respects, so any present science is also. So is it just an
>> inductive
>> argument?
>>
>> And when did we start saying this?
>>
>> Any insight appreciated.
>>
> Google "pessimistic induction" or "pessimistic metainduction".
>
> John Horgan had a book _The End of Science_ on this some years back.
> -- 
> John S. Wilkins, Philosophy, University of Queensland
> scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts
> But al be that he was a philosophre,
> Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre

I have, and read, Horgan's excellent book but I didn't see anything about 
the "asymptotic assumption" (if I may call it that). But I will look
again.

Thanks for the search term; I really didn't know what to google.