email about possible importance of differences btw empirically equivalent theories

> If two theories give identical predictions under all circumstances
> about how the real world behaves, then they are not two separate
> theories, they are merely rewordings of the same theory. And choosing
> between them is arbitrary; you may prefer one to the other because
> human minds can visualise it more easily, or it's easier to calculate,
> or you have an aethetic preference for it.
>
> --
> Philip Hunt,



However, the two theories may still have very different consequences
**within the minds of the community of scientists** ...

Even though T1 and T2 are empirically equivalent in their predictions,
T1 might have a tendency to lead a certain community of scientists
in better directions, in terms of creating new theories later on

However, empirically validating this property of T1 is another question ...
which leads one to the topic of "scientific theories about the sociological
consequences of scientific theories" ;-)

ben g