[MD] Bo's weak versus strong interpretation of quantum physiks

[plattholden at gmail.com]

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.