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More specifically the scientific method, but the scientific method is out the window in society these days-- it's un popular. A politicians pronouncing somethi

by MCRed 11y ago

More specifically the scientific method, but the scientific method is out the window in society these days-- it's un popular. A politicians pronouncing something true (that is conveniently in his self interest) is given more weight than a thousand peer review publication (or even simple phenomena that can be measured in any college lab in the country.) Science seems to be dead, and what passes for it now is extremely politicized. At least outside of commercial institutions. I'm sure Intel and the people who make fab equipment are doing real science.

api 11y ago
The scientific method is absolutely at odds with how human beings behave socially and politically. It's kind of strange that we ever came up with it. Our natural tendency is to use ideas to manipulate, to believe to belong rather than because anything is true, and to rely on a lot of sloppy heuristics in place of more cognitively expensive and time consuming modes of thought. Ultimately I think the only reason science became politically favored at all is because it was good at making people rich and building weapons to make them powerful. Truth has no part in it. Few people care about that, and not because they are evil but because they are a product of a Darwinian process that barely rewards it and that rewards other shorter term things much more.
- eru 11y ago
  Western Europe has the scientific revolution (around the Baroque era), and---bam---a few short hundred years later they dominate the globe in the 19th century.
- jsprogrammer 11y ago
  The scientific method cannot say things are true; it can only rule out particular arguments. In a sense, you can argue that the method can state truths about the incorrectness of theories, but it is highly arguable about whether such a truth actually makes a statement about reality (vs. one's con/perception of reality).

by MCRed 11y ago

api 11y ago

The scientific method is absolutely at odds with how human beings behave socially and politically. It's kind of strange that we ever came up with it. Our natural tendency is to use ideas to manipulate, to believe to belong rather than because anything is true, and to rely on a lot of sloppy heuristics in place of more cognitively expensive and time consuming modes of thought. Ultimately I think the only reason science became politically favored at all is because it was good at making people rich and building weapons to make them powerful. Truth has no part in it. Few people care about that, and not because they are evil but because they are a product of a Darwinian process that barely rewards it and that rewards other shorter term things much more.

eru 11y ago
Western Europe has the scientific revolution (around the Baroque era), and---bam---a few short hundred years later they dominate the globe in the 19th century.
jsprogrammer 11y ago
The scientific method cannot say things are true; it can only rule out particular arguments. In a sense, you can argue that the method can state truths about the incorrectness of theories, but it is highly arguable about whether such a truth actually makes a statement about reality (vs. one's con/perception of reality).