The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
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Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#2About this:
"Hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris is an imposing painting, The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus. In this 1649 work by Eustache Le Sueur, the fiery apostle lifts his right hand as if scolding the audience, while clutching a book of scripture in his left. Among the rapt or fearful listeners are people busily throwing books into a fire."
Okay, but in the USA, over the last 60 years we've seen an astonishing loss of religious authority, as well as parental authority, as well as teaching authority. There is no way to bring back scientific authority without also discussing the wider loss of authority.
Nor is the USA alone, but it is not the entire West that is effected. Anyone who wants to see the contrast can visit Britain, and then Poland. In Poland, you can still see the older social structures, and older notions about both religious authority and teaching authority and parental authority.
In the USA, in the year 2019, it is common to see these things:
1. a person at a party says they are "spiritual, but I don't believe in organized religion"
2. a parent spanks their child because their child misbehaved, and the parent is then investigated by the authorities
3. a teacher goes off script to offer their personal opinion of the Vietnam War, and then finds their whole career is at risk
Every single profession is now under attack in the USA. The older spirit of independent professions is now under attack.
I'm not saying this is good or bad, I'm just pointing out it is a fact of life. There has been some progress made in stamping out certain abuses of power, but at the cost of stripping most of the professions of their previous independence.
If you'd like to bring back scientific authority, you need to address the wider issues.
Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#3The more scientific authority is used for political aims - politics being "help my friends and hurt my enemies" the more it will lost it's authority.
Politics corrupts what it touches. It's corruption itself so it looks for sources authority to accomplish it's goals. When it finds one of those sources it uses it and then turns it into itself.
Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#4About this: " Hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris is an imposing painting, The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus. In this 1649 work by Eustache Le Sueur, the fiery apostle lifts his right hand as if scolding the audience, while clutching a book of scripture in his left. Among the rapt or fearful listeners are people busily throwing books into a fire. " Okay, but in the USA, over the last 60 years we've seen an astoni…
> 2. a parent spanks their child because their child misbehaved, and the parent is then investigated by the authorities
They should be investigated if their parenting is so poor that they resort to physical violence against the child.
It's absurd to suggest that hitting children is acceptable - as absurd as saying a boss can slap an employee, or that a husband can slap his spouse.
You can be an authoritative parent without abusing your child.
Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#5The way in which public considers science today is much more analogous to the way the public considered religion during the time of Galileo. Think of the way people are castigated for not believing in scientific "truths". I see signs in peoples yard saying that "in this house, we believe science is real". As someone who has studied biochemistry for years, this kind of reverence for science is truly troubling. The one thing you learn in high level science is that nobody really knows what they're talking about, paradigms shift, and further study is required. Blind devotion and rejection of different viewpoints is dangerous regardless of which cause is being dogmatically held.
This article is ironically akin to the 'The Preaching of St Paul', except that instead of burning Galileo's work, the author is trying to burn religious texts and dissenting viewpoints to their "settled science".
Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#6About this: " Hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris is an imposing painting, The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus. In this 1649 work by Eustache Le Sueur, the fiery apostle lifts his right hand as if scolding the audience, while clutching a book of scripture in his left. Among the rapt or fearful listeners are people busily throwing books into a fire. " Okay, but in the USA, over the last 60 years we've seen an astoni…
Are you saying that the problem here is that people aren't doing what they're told by authorities? Because I can confidently say that this is not an accurate reading of the fine article. Or, you know, reality.
Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#7About this: " Hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris is an imposing painting, The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus. In this 1649 work by Eustache Le Sueur, the fiery apostle lifts his right hand as if scolding the audience, while clutching a book of scripture in his left. Among the rapt or fearful listeners are people busily throwing books into a fire. " Okay, but in the USA, over the last 60 years we've seen an astoni…
> 2. a parent spanks their child because their child misbehaved, and the parent is then investigated by the authorities They should be investigated if their parenting is so poor that they resort to physical violence against the child. It's absurd to suggest that hitting children is acceptable - as absurd as saying a boss can slap an employee, or that a husband can slap his spouse. You can be an authoritative parent w…
The author's (or your, or my) personal opinion on spanking is very much not the issue here.
Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#8We need a distributed scientific inquiry system that exists on the scale of social media. Imagine if instead of Twitter optimizing for attention, it optimized for rigorous scientific inquiry. The world would be a much more intelligent, reasonable place.
Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#9About this: " Hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris is an imposing painting, The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus. In this 1649 work by Eustache Le Sueur, the fiery apostle lifts his right hand as if scolding the audience, while clutching a book of scripture in his left. Among the rapt or fearful listeners are people busily throwing books into a fire. " Okay, but in the USA, over the last 60 years we've seen an astoni…
> 2. a parent spanks their child because their child misbehaved, and the parent is then investigated by the authorities They should be investigated if their parenting is so poor that they resort to physical violence against the child. It's absurd to suggest that hitting children is acceptable - as absurd as saying a boss can slap an employee, or that a husband can slap his spouse. You can be an authoritative parent w…
I honestly don't get this. When did spanking your child amount to 'physical violence'? We became too liberal with even the basics.
Re: The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bring it back
#10The more scientific authority is used for political aims - politics being "help my friends and hurt my enemies" the more it will lost it's authority. Politics corrupts what it touches. It's corruption itself so it looks for sources authority to accomplish it's goals. When it finds one of those sources it uses it and then turns it into itself.
Don't know why you got downvoted for this.
Oh, yeah, politics probably :)