This weekend, in an understandable bit of schadenfreude, a front page article in the Wall Street Journal noted, “Republican America is now so vast that a traveler could drive 3,600 miles across the continent, from Key West, Fla., to the Canadian border crossing at Porthill, Idaho, without ever leaving a state…
[Please read Part I of this post first] Part V: Newtonian science & low hanging fruit As science advanced over the 19th and early 20th century, adding triumph after triumph, the seeds of scientism were laid. Having advanced so far, and conquered so many fields, was there any line too far,…
[Please read Part I of this post first] Part IV: The disunity of science This next part sketches an account of the disunity of science, one which makes room for Popper, but one which creates other discomforts for philosophy of science, which has generally been committed to the unity of science,…
[Please read Part I of this post first] Part III: What now of Popper? Maybe, Popper was a philosophical dead end. Maybe, falsifiability was never central or important for demarcating science. Might falsifiability have been naught but its own bold conjecture, since superseded? For those who follow Popper, scientists should never…
[Please read Part I of this post first] Part II: The Science of Climate Change From this point, it becomes too vague to refer to “climate change.” There are several knowledge claims at issue, and the availability of evidence, and the caliber of this evidence, differs across claims. For instance, there’s…
In this election year, belief or disbelief in climate change has become a litmus test: take a position, and you reveal yourself to be either Democrat or Republican. In keeping with the polarization of these times, there is no middle ground, no possibility of being unsure, no viable agnostic position.…
As college freshmen arrive on campus, they will be taught about privilege. Depending on how elite the institution, this teaching may be more or less heavy handed. At the extreme–the most elite institutions, attended by the most socio-economically well-endowed students–the message may be loud: “You are the privileged. Recognize your…
Triggered by William Deresiewicz’ book Excellent Sheep, the past year has seen its share of wailing and gnashing of teeth by Humanities scholars, most recently by Jackson Lears in Commonweal. The laments, while familiar, have new urgency: A soulless pragmatism squeezes the Humanities; universities have succumbed to rationalization and disenchantment,…