Ernie : " That's why I spend my time trying to find "invariants" that will endure no matter which current paradigms are destroyed. "
Nice work if you can get it. I think your sensitivities as a scientist also have something to do with it. You are conditioned to look for invariables, This is anything but a weakness, but like all good things in life, there are trade offs. I watch local Educational TV now and then. One recent program was about fluid dynamics. Waves and wave propagation. If there is one area of oceanography that might have serious usefulness to social science this might be it. Society is roughly like the surface of the sea. Yes, you can reduce wave motion to a series of equations, but the reality of politics is often like the sea during a storm. When you are in it, the skills that matter most are those of a ship's captain. So, to theorize about society / politics takes a combination of these skills. Not only : What equations describe wave behavior ( including rogue waves and tsunamis ) but how do you also describe what ship captains do ? And while you are at it, a little ship architecture isn't a bad idea, and some basic navigation knowledge. Maybe also toss in meteorology. Not that social scientists are all that good at this. Too darned much to think about. No-one can possibly do it all. And don't we all have biases ? So the results, no matter how conscientious, will always be less than optimal. Some do it better than others is the best anyone can say. I see your point, and it is a good one. I'd call it necessary, in fact.. But there is more than one way to skin a cat. The way it seems to me, thinking about the TV program about fluid dynamics, you are most interested in a cross section of the sea, examining wave crests, motion effects, longitudinal considerations, etc. No problem at all in seeing how that is useful. But my natural tendency is to take a panoramic view, or a cartographers view, try to see how the problem spreads out before me, like a map or sea chart, and work from there. Unless, of course, I find myself in a sailboat, wind gusts of 40 knots, and my first priority is getting through the squall alive. Cheers Billy ============================================================ In a message dated 8/27/2010 8:55:39 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Hi Billy, Sent from my iPhone On Aug 26, 2010, at 23:09, [email protected] wrote: > So, whatever form a now kind of politics emerges, don't expect the old paradigms to make it though the Crisis intact. Hell, we may not make it though the Crisis as we may expect as of today. Exactly. That's why I spend my time trying to find "invariants" that will endure no matter which current paradigms are destroyed. E -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
