The White Crows

(Apologies in advance for the horrible mangling and simplification of science and philosophy and the philosophy of science. Clay may never forgive me.)

So, it's a general principle in science that it's impossible to reason your way from observations to absolute truth; you can disprove, but you can never prove. No theory in all of science is ever beyond question. To take the famous example: you've seen a great many crows in your life. They've all been black. Can you therefore conclude that all crows are black? Of course not.

I think it's pretty much the same story across the hall in philosophy-land. There, you don't worry so much about what can or cannot be observed, but there are still axioms, and they are never beyond reproach, and yadda yadda yadda you get the idea.

What I really wanted to say was that I miss the white crows. You know, the experiences that cause you to completely reevaluate what you think and start over from scratch. It happens all the time when you're young, but these days, I can't think of the last time I saw a white crow. Which is a pity, because it means that the patterns of my thought are staying basically the same. Which sucks. You're either learning or you're dying.