On Saturday, February 5, 2011, Jue Miao Jing Ming - 覺妙精明
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Good Morning To You,
>
> As a scientist or a scholar, the training is to remain absolutely
> objective, be an observer and never contaminate the fact in front of us
> with our own interpretation or subjective filtering. This is well
> respected and understood.
I don't think this is true anymore. Since at least Kuhn's _Structure
of Scientific Revolutions_, people have been pretty clear that we all
have a perspective, and that while that structure changes as we
experience life, experiments, data, etc, we can't arbitrarily see any
possible theory. Old school geologists couldn't see the many many
traces of continetal drift, and geology did not see it until the old
school died.
Perhaps science could be described as a group activity that strives to
build a shared understanding about life that holds up for people with
varying subjectivities.
Even the classical scientific method that is more often seen in
elementary schools than science labs starts out with an assumption
that the observer cannot be objective, and tries to find ways to work
with that fact. A priori written down predictions are a response to
that. Double blind surveys are a response to that subjective observer.
doing an experiment is humble: it is to say that reason is not enough,
we must engage the real world.
Not to say that science is zen or Zen or zazen, but it is an actual
human activity, distinct from the ideas we may have about it.
Congrats again on your promotion, JMJM.
--Chris
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