humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

bobgrumman@nut-n-but.net wrote:
> On Mar 26, 9:38 pm, "John W. Kennedy" wrote:
>> bobgrum...@nut-n-but.net wrote:
>>> One huge difference between Freud and Looney is that Freud was
>>> inventing answers to questions not effectively answered whereas Looney
>>> was inventing answers to a question long effectively enough answered
>>> to satisfy everyone in the field that further answers were
>>> unnecessary. Same difference exists between Wegener and Looney--but
>>> another exists there, too--that Wegener was vindicated.
>> /Part/ of his theory was vindicated, by scientists who bumped into it
>> while working in an unrelated area. Much of it remains nonsense.
>>
>> --
>> John W. Kennedy
>
> True. I meant that what was the important part of his theory to me
> was vindicated. I'm not sure I'd call the parts of it that were wrong
> nonsense, either. But I'm vague about what he said now. Am reading
> The Dark Side of the Earth to try to recover my understanding of it.
> A problem is that there were so many theories bouncing around, it's
> hard to get get a good grasp of any one of them.

Essentially, he believed that solid-rock continents were dragged through
the solid-rock crust by tidal forces. A lovely theory, as long as you're
willing to disregard every known law of physics. Plate tectonics theory
was developed as a result of studies of the ocean floor, and only then
was it noticed that Wegener's idea of moving continents suddenly made
sense in an unanticipated way.

--
John W. Kennedy
"But now is a new thing which is very old--
that the rich make themselves richer and not poorer,
which is the true Gospel, for the poor's sake."
-- Charles Williams. "Judgement at Chelmsford"