tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post6109939928189774341..comments2024-03-25T11:49:21.281-07:00Comments on The Splintered Mind: Twilight of the (Scientific) Gods?Eric Schwitzgebelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-69509891833011383972022-10-30T17:15:44.078-07:002022-10-30T17:15:44.078-07:00Figdor writes...
"This story is that the fol...Figdor writes...<br /><br />"This story is that the folk are getting deeply and inchoately pissed at the scientific gods. In this series of posts, I want to explore this anger and what it means for science, philosophy and the folk."<br /><br />I regret being ten years late to this thread.<br /><br />Anger at the scientific gods seems misplaced (though I admit to some indulgence) because scientists seem to be overwhelmingly people of good intentions.<br /><br />The problem is not scientists really, who do the job we hire them to do and do it well, but the fact that we've made scientists in to gods, a mistake which amplifies the cultural influence of the weaknesses of science culture.<br /><br />Scientists are incredibly adept at developing new knowledge, but appear incurably trapped in a simplistic, outdated, and increasingly dangerous "more is better" relationship with knowledge, a philosophy left over from the 19th century. Click my name for more on that.<br /><br />It wouldn't matter so much that scientists are lousy philosophers, except that their influence upon the entire culture is so profound.<br /><br /><br /><br />Phil Tannyhttps://www.facebook.com/phil.tanny/posts/pfbid028vNnknjphbS3kQdGW8eat6KDp1teZTfMu2TAtj6eKQUg1cVE6VgFekzy8g38cp4jlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-48199277945529609012012-05-15T05:24:32.725-07:002012-05-15T05:24:32.725-07:00@Richard: :-) (response delayed by Die Walkure)@Richard: :-) (response delayed by Die Walkure)Carrie Figdornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-77711310054395606562012-05-14T02:38:04.860-07:002012-05-14T02:38:04.860-07:00The most apposite line is Fricka's, from Die W...The most apposite line is Fricka's, from Die Walküre, act 2, scene 1, about how the gods lose their power and vanish if mortals start to laugh at them:<br /><br />Von Menschen verlacht, verlustig der Macht, gingen wir Götter zugrundRichard Baronhttp://www.rbphilo.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-87197780033864153302012-05-12T17:12:24.690-07:002012-05-12T17:12:24.690-07:00@Brandon: I think you will find my upcoming posts ...@Brandon: I think you will find my upcoming posts interesting, i.e. provocative.<br /><br />@John: I agree, and have an upcoming post on language with a brief mention of "nothing". I can't speak to the atlantic's assessment of the import of the debate/kerfuffle, however.Carrie Figdornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-44740636668950299032012-05-11T19:51:30.052-07:002012-05-11T19:51:30.052-07:00What is the "legitimate scientific discovery&...What is the "legitimate scientific discovery" that the Krauss-Albert controversy is supposedly about? I don't think there is one. They're mainly fighting about the meaning of the word "nothing" and whether it makes sense to say cosmology explains how "something can come from nothing". In short, it's basically the kind of argument professors like to have after a few drinks in the faculty lounge, but carried out in public view. The internet is letting people see lots of things that existed all along, but weren't so visible before.John Baezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11573268162105600948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-28112354979729239822012-05-11T18:07:49.053-07:002012-05-11T18:07:49.053-07:00There is exaggeration in the way that science is m...There is exaggeration in the way that science is meted out in the popular press? The devil you say!<br /><br />Indeed, such articles often become extra credit fodder in my cog sci classes. The claims that the pop science crowd make sometimes are incredible, and I think the public has a right to feel cheated and/or angry.<br /><br />Then again, science education (or lack thereof) seems to be a large part of the problem itself. A lot of scientists (and also philosophers, mathematicians, etc.) don't know how to explain, to a lay audience, what they do or what they are trying to figure out. And so they, or the "science journalists" who talk to them, try to connect up their research programs with the kinds of lame and/or misinformed questions that still seem to circulate among non-specialists... even if doing so invites an epic non-sequitor.<br /><br />This seems to me to be a problem, but I'm not sure what the fix is. So for now, I will simply bask in Figdore's clever syllogism.Brandon N. Towlhttp://www.wordshaveimpact.comnoreply@blogger.com