Thanks for the Feyerabend reference, but geel whiz... Knorr-Certina's "The Manufacture of Knowledge" is $349.95, on Amazon, used! and only one copy. but in French it's only $25 bucks! Hey should I snap it up?
Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 680 Ft. Washington Ave NY NY 10040 tel: 212-795-4844 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] explorations: www.synapse9.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Prof David West [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 7:12 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity > Coffee Group > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The Verifier > > > > > An old book, but still interesting and relevant - > Knorr-Certina, The Manufacture of Knowledge, looks at how > science is really done and really written about and biases, > blind-spots, and paradigms. A good complement to the even > older work of Paul Feyerabend. > > davew > > > On Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:15:18 -0400, "Phil Henshaw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > said: > > I see those biases a lot, and use finding my own sloppy > patches as keys > > to where I'll discover new things. One exceptionally > common bias of > > current interest is the tendency of scientists to ignore > the time lags > > between cause and effect, that when not ignored lead to the > discovery > > of the independent developmental process that are > functional necessities in > > the occurrence of the response. An example? Any process > of entropy, > > seems to requires the local development of individual > self-organizing > > complex systems to carry it out, and when you look you find them. > > > > I've been reading 'Linked' by Barabasi, and thoroughly enjoying his > > insightful discoveries of telling structural patterns in > the topology > > of networks, and how the distribution of densely connected > hubs changes > > network behaviors entirely, among other things. What's totally > > remarkable is that despite observing that this 'scale free' > > distribution of connections, as it has become called, > develops as the > > network adds and then abandons links (branching followed by > selection) > > to produce the final form, he attributes no causal > contribution to the > > direct process by which system producing the network > develops, i.e. to > > what happens. Instead he extremely consistently phrases the > cause of > > the pattern as being the benchmark indicator of having an inverse > > square distribution of nodes with high degrees of > connection, a statistical property > > discovered after the fact. I'm going page after page after page > > wondering when is he ever going to credit the evolutionary > process by > > which the pattern develops in the overall causal scheme of > things,... > > and the answer seems to be, well, never!! It's stunning > how so many > > hugely productive insights are so obviously being looked at > squarely > > and then skipped over again and again and again, evidently just not > > fitting the question and purpose of his otherwise brilliantly > > observant examination of the facts! > > > > I'm wondering if the blind spot this exposes is embedded in > our tools, > > since he obviously sees the actual behaviors producing the patterns > > and is very creative in identifying the resultant patterns > associated with > > them, but is just not drawn to studying them. If used for > the purpose, > > these same patterns would lead us to investigate how the > direct causal > > mechanisms do actually operate, in detail, but he keeps > consistently > > declaring the resultant pattern to be the cause and the > behavior to not > > exist. Just g.d. remarkable! Could it be that our > forbearers were > > just so totally obsessed with control, that our traditional > tools were > > built in a way that can't describe anything else? > > > > > > > > Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸ > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > 680 Ft. Washington Ave > > NY NY 10040 > > tel: 212-795-4844 > > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > explorations: www.synapse9.com <http://www.synapse9.com/> > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > > Behalf Of Roger > Critchlow > > Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 12:47 PM > > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > > Subject: [FRIAM] The Verifier > > > > > > Here's an article about a kind of meta-analysis that looks for > > cognitive biases among groups of researchers. > > > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/business/you> rmoney/05frame.html?ref= > > bu > > siness > > > <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/business/yourmoney/05frame. html?ref=b > usiness> > > -- rec -- > > > > > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
