On 12/4/2016 9:09 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
On 02 Dec 2016, at 21:28, Brent Meeker wrote:
I thought it was funny, and had a grain of truth (and I'm a physicist).
To be sure, it applies to mathematicians, and biologists, too. It
looks like after retirement, you are no more under the obligation to
be rigorous, especially on philosophy, where rigor has been abandoned
even by "professional" since long. It looks like people are afraid of
admitting their fundamental ignorance before dying. It is the usual,
and rather sane, fear of the unknown, but they won't admit it, I guess.
Bruno
I think it's that physicists, more that most people, strive to
understand the world and they form an opinion about what is
fundamental. It's impossible to confirm such a theory, such as quantum
field theory, so as long as it is not disconfirmed they can hold onto it
as having solved the question they set out to answer in life. Having
done that, when they retire they look around to see how their theory of
the world or their methodology applies to every other question.
Brent
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty,
and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life-- so I became a
scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
-- Matt Cartmill
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