On 22 Jul 2010 at 12:07, Krimel wrote: [Platt] Just suggesting that scientists and those who use scientific methods are human, subject to the same temptations as anyone else, like government funding.
[Krimel] So are judges, priests, writers of fiction and purveyors of right wing rhetoric. We are all human and subject to human limitations. The whole point of a "method" whether scientific, legal, medical or literary is to overcome those limitations as best we can. Rather than surrender to the inevitability of human fallibility our "methods" are a way of doing our best. [Platt] So are politicians, journalists, lawyers and purveyors of radical left-wing propaganda. We are all human, and there are many methods for doing what we think best. God help us if there is only one right way to pursue our goals. At the end of that road lies tyranny. [Krimel] The descendants of Plato's Academy form a community that spans the globe and encompasses every area of human inquiry. Government funding inadequate as it is, is by no means the only source that funds in the academy. Many institutions of higher learning are private and many perhaps most are in other countries. For people committed to honest inquiry funding is a means to an end and not as you would have the sole reason for being. [Platt] Not the sole reason, but an ever present influence. [Platt] Not cynical, realistic. Also, I recognize that science operates under certain basic assumptions that its method cannot prove, like determinism, reductionism, materialism and the ever-popular emergentism. That's what I meant by it being a fairly static system. [Krimel] Only someone unfamiliar with the diversity of opinion represented in even a single discipline could make such a statement. Only someone who has slept through the past 50 years could claim that the results of the work of the academy is static. From civil rights to cell phones the academy has laid the foundation for the transformation of society and the individuals it supports. [Platt] Are you saying science doesn't have basic assumptions like determinism, reductionism, materialism and emergentism? Nobody's work is static unless a robot, but many assumptions, like reality being subjects and objects, are. You couldn't think at all without them. As for transformation of society, the academy has played a role, but so have entrepreneurs, bankers and artists. The question is: has the transformation been good? Pirsig sees some problems. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
