3 ms·
For a long time I've seen Kant as someone who deeply misunderstood the Enlightenment. It was specifically meant to free people of this endless bickering over so
by Anotheroneagain 3y ago
For a long time I've seen Kant as someone who deeply misunderstood the Enlightenment. It was specifically meant to free people of this endless bickering over some scripture or other abstract issue, and told them see for themselves. But science has long descended back into "rationalism" (what an unfortunate term), and is no better than what the enlightenment fought against.
- 48864w6ui 3y agoHow so? What is "rationalism" and how do you apply it to scientists, as opposed to, say, Jesuits?
- Anotheroneagain 3y agoRationalism is the rejection of the idea that knowledge needs to be gathered, rather than intuited. A rationalist, in practice, necessarily derives his worldview either starting from some gut instict (that something just has to be a certain way, because it feels that way), or from preexisting texts, be it a religious scripture, or a scientific theory that is treated as inviolable.
- n4r9 3y agoWhich scientific theory or theories do you perceive being treated as inviolable?
- Anotheroneagain 3y agoIt depends more on the person who does it, rather than a specific theory, but I will pick obesity in particular - there has hardly been any idea so widely contradicted by practical experience, yet it is still treated as an indisputable fact, to the extent that all the further work aims at resolving why people "lie" and how to make them eat less, rather than coming up with something else.
- n4r9 3y agoI don't understand... "obesity" has been "contradicted by practical experience"? Or do you mean the idea that following a calorie-restricted diet leads to weight loss?
- Anotheroneagain 3y agoYes. That it's caused by eating too much.
- hagbard_c 3y agoFor the vast majority of obese people the cause lies in overeating - especially where it concerns high-fat and -sugar foods - and the cure in eating less and to a certain (but lesser) extent getting more physical exercise. There are people for whom this does not hold as they gain weight due to other reasons - thyroid problems, Prader-Willi syndrome, Cushings syndrome, 'side effects' of medication they take for other conditions and more - but these are the exceptions to the rule. What do you think is the main cause for obesity?
- Anotheroneagain 3y agoFamine doesn't mean the absence of food. There is often plenty, but the food is inadequate. The skeletal children are often basically propaganda, they refuse to show the real ones. They look fat, and they fear they wouldn't get anything. I believe it is the same thing. The signs are the same.
- n4r9 3y agoDidn't that professor lose 27 pounds on a diet of twinkies just to show it's all about calories? Marc Haub, after googling it
- froh 3y agoso do you meanwhile recognize him as one of the guys who started the age of enlightenment and defined what it is? with, for example this very essay that is referenced here? which is one of the groundbreaking philosophical works of that epoch?
- Anotheroneagain 3y agoI believe that might not be historically accurate, he is only convenient for those who want to undo the changes.