[MD] Science and Scientism

[Ian Glendinning]

Expressed that way Mark, we almost entirely agree .... In the reason
why "scientism" is a cultural problem that goes beyond the bounds of
science (As DMB put rather better)

A couple of points to add.

You DO have first hand experiential evidence of the planets revolving
around the sun ... assuming you're ever looked up at the sky, maybe
even with a pair of binoculars. You take the science "story" and the
evidence of your eyes and you say "ah yes, I see" the evidence I DO
see DOES fit the story.

More contentious: Ignorance is valuable too.
We have to be selective about which details take up our attention.
It's my "life's too short" defence, otherwise we'd all be "paddling
logs" - to quote Dyson. If the devil is in the details, avoid the
details I say ;-) If they matter, they'll bite us in the bum sooner or
later, for example if we think we have a scientific hypothesis worth
testing - but until then live dangerously (To mis-quote Horse / and
Hunter S Thomson).

Take care
Ian

On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 9:15 AM, markhsmit <markhsmit at aol.com> wrote:
>
> OK Mark (but the mail was addressed to me, take care)
>
> You said
>> Perhaps faith is not the right word, because
>> I am not talking religious faith.
>
> OK, maybe there is something to talk about. It's really the degree of
> (or nature of) the blindness vs contingency in the faith (belief) we
> are talking about. "Basis of belief" is the language I try to use.
> Quite a few of those things you list you have first-person
> experiential evidence as well as a lot of corroborating evidence. The
> question is what counts as valuable evidence.
>
> Ian
>
> Yea, and for me, what counts as valuable evidence at the expense
> of ignoring other evidence.  In my opinion, science is very well
> put together, with lots of supporting empirical data.  It is taught in
> school, so we accept things like the planets revolving around the
> sun and so on.  Since I have no first hand evidence of this, I accept
> it as a possibility.  Since I do not often have to think about it, this
> acceptance of planet revolution has no effect on my daily life.
>
> I appears to me that the dominance of the inculcation in
> science is at the expense of much else.  And, most of it
> we accept based on books or teachers unquestionably.
> I think that is what I am trying to point out.
>
> Mark
>
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