3 ms·

Yes, I found that a weird argument as well. It is not an argument at all. Feynman drank, played bongo, womanised, slept with some of his friends' wives. But t

by truth_ 5y ago

Yes, I found that a weird argument as well. It is not an argument at all. Feynman drank, played bongo, womanised, slept with some of his friends' wives. But that does not mean everyone who does that is a great Physicist. Neither all great Physicists do these. Taking an outlier and using him for justification of something seems obtuse. I love Feynman, and have a picture of him on my wall. But that does not mean I idealize or even like everything he did in his life.

mr_gibbins 5y ago
My issue with Feynman, the one I cannot get past (no matter how much I like his lifestyle and intellect), is the work on the Manhattan Project. His defence was, essentially, that a war was on, and the US needed the same capabilities as other nations were developing. However the resultant catastrophes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki just negate that for me. He didn't order those bombs to be dropped. But he is partially responsible for those deaths, whether he foresaw them or not. Incidentally, I've not read much about his womanising - perhaps I'm not reading between the lines?
- emmelaich 5y ago
  Catastrophe? Those bombs saved millions of Japanese lives.
- truth_ 5y ago
  He was a promising young scientist who worked in the team. And although the bomb was used on the Japanese, it was meant primarily as a weapom against Hitler. Feynman was an American Jew. Imagine yourself in the same situation. There's a dictator who hates all Jews and basically any race which is not Aryan enough for him. He wants to kill them all. A gigantic war machine which is fighting the rest of the world alone is also possibly building something similar. You get the opportunity to work on something that undermines the devil, that will buy you and your country protection against it. Will you not work in it?

3 ms·

Yes, I found that a weird argument as well. It is not an argument at all. Feynman drank, played bongo, womanised, slept with some of his friends' wives. But t

by truth_ 5y ago

mr_gibbins 5y ago
My issue with Feynman, the one I cannot get past (no matter how much I like his lifestyle and intellect), is the work on the Manhattan Project. His defence was, essentially, that a war was on, and the US needed the same capabilities as other nations were developing. However the resultant catastrophes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki just negate that for me. He didn't order those bombs to be dropped. But he is partially responsible for those deaths, whether he foresaw them or not. Incidentally, I've not read much about his womanising - perhaps I'm not reading between the lines?
- emmelaich 5y ago
  Catastrophe? Those bombs saved millions of Japanese lives.
- truth_ 5y ago
  He was a promising young scientist who worked in the team. And although the bomb was used on the Japanese, it was meant primarily as a weapom against Hitler. Feynman was an American Jew. Imagine yourself in the same situation. There's a dictator who hates all Jews and basically any race which is not Aryan enough for him. He wants to kill them all. A gigantic war machine which is fighting the rest of the world alone is also possibly building something similar. You get the opportunity to work on something that undermines the devil, that will buy you and your country protection against it. Will you not work in it?