Hi If you follow up many of these kinds of discussions, including this one and the one mentioned by Michael S. on "(New) Atheism, Scientism, and Open-mindedness", one in short order runs into the far-reaching fingers of the John Templeton organization. Jerry Coyne has a nice (depending on your perspective) take on Templeton and those taking its funding:
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/templeton-continues-to-conflate-science-and-woo/ It appears that some areas of academia besides administrators may be for sale, as well as our politicians. The Positive Psychology Center at Penn State got several millions of dollars from Templeton during its early days. Despite the truly impressive list of scholars associated with the center, follow the Conference link to learn about the Happiness 2012 conference. What are people like Martin Seligman and Ellen Langer doing on the same program with someone described as follows? "Lillian Too's 89 books on feng shui, astrology and Tibetan Buddhism have collectively sold over ten million copies and translated into 30 languages. An MBA graduate of Harvard Business School, Lillian headed Dao Heng Bank in Hong Kong and acquired DRAGON SEED department store group before retiring at 45 years to become a full time mother." No wonder it is difficult to disabuse students and the public about quacky ideas when practitioners of these "dark arts" are equated with some of our strongest scholars! Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> Jeffry Ricker <[email protected]> 09-Dec-11 10:41:01 AM >>> Hi all, I'm posting this to two listservs. I apologize to those who get two copies of the message. Here are some excerpts from the blog post, "Can Science Explain Everything?" The full text is here: http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/can-science-explain-everything/27995 Best, Jeff ============== Can Science Explain Everything? By David Wheeler There*s a new bully on the intellectual block, shoving scholars around. Lots of them are caving into the threats. The bully*s name is *scientism,* the belief that science has a monopoly on all real knowledge. All other knowledge, scientism asserts, is simply opinion, irrationality, or utter nonsense. That was the perspective Ian Hutchinson, professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offered at an event titled *Can Science Explain Everything?* at the American Association for the Advancement of Science this week.... Science has two key elements, reproducibility and clarity, Hutchinson said. Reproducibility means essentially that an experiment done in one place by one person can be repeated somewhere else by someone else. Clarity refers to the unambiguous nature of science*s measurements, descriptions, and classifications. History is an example of a discipline that has produced real knowledge that is not scientific knowledge.... Mr. Hutchinson listed other phenomena that may be *true* but that he believes are outside of science*s scope: the beauty of a sunset, the justice of a verdict, or the terror of a war. Many humans may share similar perceptions of these phenomenon but the basis of those perceptions will lack clarity. *Ambiguity is an intrinsic part of these things,* he said. Where, exactly, does God fit into this picture? Mr. Hutchinson says that while the universe has physical laws, God may be behind them. Science would be helpless to detect an act of God that violates the laws of physics since it would not be reproducible. Scientists should have no problem being religious, he said. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D. SCC: Professor of Psychology MCCCD: General Studies Faculty Representative PSY 101 Website: http://sccpsy101.wordpress.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scottsdale Community College 9000 E. Chaparral Road Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Office: SB-123 Phone: (480) 423-6213 Fax: (480) 423-6298 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=14799 or send a blank email to leave-14799-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14804 or send a blank email to leave-14804-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
