TEXAS STUDENTS TEST ASTROLOGY PREDICTIONS.: An article from: Skeptic (Altadena, CA)

This digital document is a journal article from Studies in History and Philosophy of Science published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
What is the relationship between observations predictions texts and instruments in ancient astrology? By distinguishing between two distinct kinds of observation claim in astrological texts I show on the one hand the rhetorical and theoretical importance of each kind of observation claim to ancient astrological traditions and on the other hand how practices of ancient astrology break from observation once astronomical phenomena become reliably predictable. We thus see a shift in practice from observationally derived predictions to a reliance on textual and instrumental authority even though the rhetoric of ancient astrology still tries to maintain an emphasis on observation.