Zoot wrote:if i dropped an apple in space, which direction would it go?
But there are no trees in space. In fact, my back yard is on Earth. The statement is "The apples fall down from the tree in my back yard and not up". You can limit yourself to what happens in my back yard. My point, I have to remind you, is that such a statement imposes restrictions on what is possible.
i have the same problem hume and popper had with such statements.
Hume had no problem with such statements. Popper did.
you can't prove that all swans (P) are white (Q).
You cannot do so with absolute certainty, that's true, however . . .
you can prove that all the swans that you have seen are white
. . . since memory is infallible, particular statements such as "I saw a white swan at some point in the past" aren't absolutely certain either. But strangely, you have no problem with them.
are we really still talking about this, man?
I am afraid that we need to.
but you aren't making any predictions about anything by saying 'some swans are white'. you're just stating a fact.
And that's why such statements are not sufficient to me: because I want to make predictions.