WHITE CROW TELESCOPE
“If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you mustn’t seek to prove that no crows are; it is enough to prove one single crow to be white.”
William James, Address of the President before the Society for Psychical Research, 1890 (arguing for the significance of the spirit medium Leonora Piper)
“One white crow is enough, but its skin should be deposited in a museum…”
Response of James McKeen Cattell, 1896
Four scientists, a mathematician, a physicist, a biologist and an astronomer, go on a trip to Scotland. As they cross the border they see a black sheep in a field.
"Amazing," says the astronomer, "All the sheep in Scotland are black!"
"Don't be silly," says the biologist, "It would be more precise to say that some sheep in Scotland are black."
"Nonsense," says the physicist, "You need to be much more precise than that. All we can say with certainty is that in Scotland at least one sheep is black."
The mathematician sighs.
"You people make me laugh with your sloppy talk about precision. I think the best we can say on the evidence so far is that there is one field in Scotland containing one sheep, one half of which is black."
A full preview of the Blurb book of this series is available:
