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Maybe off-topic, but Prof. Chomsky always mention how important Newton was in the history of science and how significant his giving up on the mechanical philoso
by mrwnmonm 6y ago
Maybe off-topic, but Prof. Chomsky always mention how important Newton was in the history of science and how significant his giving up on the mechanical philosophy when he failed to explain gravity in a mechanical way, how "lowering the bar" was important to set a realistic direction for science.
He has many lectures about it, I like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5in5EdjhD0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5in5EdjhD0, one of the best lectures ever.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rjbwork 6y agoI greatly enjoyed that, thank you. It's much easier to follow Chomsky @ 1.25x speed, lol. I found his assertion and explanation during the questions section about the meaninglessness of "the physical" to be rather illuminating.
- pierrebai 6y agoYou did? Maybe you can explain it to me, because I rather thought it was a pure semantic game. Saying that "material" is no longer considered relevant was just a typical intellectual game of stripping words from their usual definitions. (I also despise his continual use of the rhetoric device during his lecture of claiming that a particular philosophical debate has been settled and the "evident" correct answer is his own position on the subject. He keeps using that turn of phrase where his opinion is presented as the only tenable one by an intelligent thinker. He always does that. I think it's a weak trick so silence critics.)
- DiggyJohnson 6y agoI believe that’s just a different perspective on effective communication. Otherwise he would constantly need to hedge his points.